FOTD -- July 15, 2008 (Rating 6) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: I spent most of the time on today's philosophy, which appears below, so I have little time for the fractal discussion. Today's image is from the same parent fractal as yesterday's image. This parent was created by combining 0.4 part of (1/Z) with Z^100 and adding C. Whereas yesterday's image is located on the west side of the open area of its parent, today's is found in a vestigial East Valley on the East side. I named the image "Hyper Ultra Hyper", which means nothing. I rated it at a 6, which is a half step down from yesterday's image. The calculation time of one minute will bring only happiness. And that happiness may be assured by visiting the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and viewing the finished GIF image there. Out of the blue Monday afternoon, FL made one of her comments that are intended to be innocent, but really get me pondering. She commented that she thinks I might be losing faith in science. How insightful a statement! Science is supposed to work in exactly the opposite way from faith. The claims of science must be objectively provable and falsifiable, while faith is based on unverifiable and unfalsifiable doctrines stated by priests, plus lots of hope, and yes, a bit of wishful thinking. When one loses faith, it means that the person can no longer believe a particular religious doctrine. A person may lose faith in the existence of a supernatural creator God because so much of the universe has been shown to have a perfectly natural explanation. They may lose faith in the existence of an immor- tal soul because the conscious mind is known to be intimately connected with a healthy functioning brain. Or the person may simply be unable to believe in things he cannot observe. But at the same time, science also requires us to have faith in things that we cannot observe. No one has ever directly seen an atom or any of the sub-atomic particles. We see only the written scriptures of physicists serving as high priests, who claim to have observed some high-energy phenomena that only they can interpret for us. We have the words of the religious priests written in the holy scriptures of religion; we have the words of the physicist priests written in the holy scriptures of published scientific papers. We have apologists for religion; we have apologists for science. The religious faithful are quick to defend their religious beliefs; the scientific faithful are just as quick to defend their scientific beliefs. I see little difference. In my case, my greatest doubt is that it is possible for a theory of everything to even exist, much less be worked out mathematically. Not the least problem is that the concept of 'everything' is an unrealizable ideal, not an objective reality. Finding a theory of everything is as likely as finding every possible fractal. Physicists have been chasing a chimera for over a century. But the chase is fun, and the chasers get their books published, and their shows fill the television channels, so the futile chase will likely continue well into the 22nd Century. But even then, the number of calculated fractals will have yet to scratch the surface of the total number of fractals that potentially exist. Monday opened with clouds here at Fractal Central, but by late morning the clouds had cleared away, leading to one of the most delightful afternoons of the summer. The fractal cats were too busy watching a tailless cat hanging around the area to bother with the 84F 29C weather. In my department, the real work was finished early, leaving ample time for today's image, which, despite sufficient time, still fell short. The next FOTD image will be posted in 24 hours. Until then, take care, and keep the faith. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Hyper_Ultra_Hyper { ; time=0:01:02.84-SF5 on P4-2000 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandAutoCritInZ function=ident float=y center-mag=+0.5274268482159935/-0.0000290600313758\ 7/6.88186e+009/1/-166/0 params=1/100/0.4/-1/0/0/0/0 maxiter=1500 inside=0 logmap=116 periodicity=10 colors=000`UK_UKZUKYUKXUKWUKVUKUUKTUKRUKPUKNUKLUKJ\ ULHVMFXKDZIBaF9cD7eB6g99jCBlEDnGGpJIrLKtNNvQPxSRzU\ Pz_OziOzsMzzKzzKzzauzqeUzP0z90z20zU0sc0wm0zm0zm0zK\ 2zR9zYGzeMzkPoIMO0Kc0Oq0Rz0Wz0Yz0Uw0Rm0Oc0MU0IK5G9\ 9DRGYiKqzOz00z00z9DzOWz_mzz09z0Gz5KzBPzGUzMYzRczYg\ zakz_gzYczW_zUWzRRzRPo55e000c00Y00RG0MU0Ie0Bs05z00\ z0Bz0Mm0WY0eI0o00y00m07cGIRUPIg_5ug0zq0uy0gz0Uz0Gz\ 00z00z02z5IzGWzPiz_wwizqszkzzayzRwzIuu7qi0oW0mI0k5\ 0oD0sK0wR0zY0zc5zk9zqDzw9zm5sc0gU0WK0M9G50_00q00i0\ 0a00U02M0D052MG9cOGwWKzcPzkUzcYzYasPceKgUDiOOyDyz9\ zcOz0Iz0Bz5Oz9IzDBzI7zKmzDzz7zzPzzezzuzzmYzg2za0zW\ Gz0Oz0WzGczUkzeKz0Rz9YzOczaizmuz_zzMzz7zz0QKPXPKbT\ GiYCoazuezeRzQDzPPzP`zPlzTVzXDzTGzPIzMKzINzEPzBRz8\ Yz5dz2kz4hz5ez6cz7`z8Yz9WzATzBRzTYzidzzjzthzogzifz\ ddzZczUbzTdzRfzQhzPjzNlzMnzKpzJrzIszOszTszYszbszhs\ zmszrszwsztmzrhzpcznZzlTz } frm:MandAutoCritInZ {; Jim Muth a=real(p1), b=imag(p1), d=real(p2), f=imag(p2), g=1/f, h=1/d, j=1/(f-b), z=(((-a*b*g*h)^j)+(p4)), k=real(p3)+1, l=imag(p3)+100, c=fn1(pixel): z=k*((a*(z^b))+(d*(z^f)))+c, |z| < l } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================