FOTD -- August 5, 2005 (Rating 7) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: I have named today's image "Half Alive" to make clear my doubt that fractals are fully alive. But sometimes I rather suspect that fractals might be marginally alive. They certainly grow and evolve like living systems. They come in families; they reproduce smaller copies of themselves, with complex mathemati- cal expressions acting as genetic material. I am not ready to suggest that fractals are self-aware, but considering that we have no idea what self-awareness is or where it comes from, I see no reason why such a thing might be impossible. It seems no less likely than the 175-pound chunk of meat called myself being self-aware. In the end I guess it all depends on the definition of the word 'alive'. To put my feelings in as few words as possible, of course fractals are not alive. Any fool knows that. The very idea is absurd. But do the fractals know it? That is the question. Today's image comes from a combination of Z^(-1.3) and Z^(+1.3). The parent fractal consists of two large but distorted Mandel- oids, with smaller oddly-shaped Mandeloids scattered about. Today's scene is located in a valley of one of the smaller Mandeloids. There is a midget at the center of the image, but the midget will never be reached, at least by the Fractint program as it now stands, for the midget lies far beyond resolution. The 'above average' rating of a 7 seems appropriate for today's fractal. The coloring is . . . well . . . striking, but similar scenes have appeared several times before as FOTD images, and the render time of 54 minutes makes rendering the image a chore. For rendering relief, I recommend visiting the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and downloading the finished image from there. A temperature of 97F 36C and high humidity kept the fractal duo under the cool air most all day here at Fractal Central on Thurs- day. At the same time, I kept busy working all day. Today is starting hot again. I expect a repeat performance. The next FOTD will appear in 24 hours. Until then, take care, and where, if anywhere, did fractal life begin? Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Half_Alive { ; time=0:54:24.39--SF5 on a P200 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=-0.78343573916752540/+0.000013490892506\ 23/1.158479e+012/1/112.5/-0.00146805133114015496 params=1/-1.3/-2/1.3/-0.5/0 float=y maxiter=4500 inside=zmag periodicity=10 mathtolerance=0.05/1 colors=000gHiJKPMOTPRWSUZVXaY_d`cgcfjfimilpkosmpmo\ phqqbsqYuqTwrNyrIzrDvqGrqJoqLkqOgpRdpT`pWYpYYmtPlo\ Hkk9jf1jb2ga3ea4ba4``5Z`6W`6U_7R_8P_8N_CLZGKYJIXNH\ WQGWUEVXDU`BTcASg9Sj7Rn6Qq4Pu3Ox2Ot6MqALnEKjIJgLHd\ PG`TFYXEV_CRcBOgALk9In8HoAHpCHqDGrFGsGGtIFtJFuLFvM\ EwOExPEyREySMqOTjL`cIgWFoPCvI9pPFjWKdbPZiVTp_OvdPt\ eQrfQpgRnhRmiSkjSikTglTfmSdhRbdQ``P_XOYTNWOMUKLTGK\ RCJP8IO4NRARUFWXL__QdbVhe`mheqlkvnpxosynpymlykhyjc\ yh_xgWxeSxdNxbJxaFx`Bt_DpZElYFiXGf_EdbDadC_gAXi9Vl\ 8Tn7SiBSdER`IRWLQRPQNSPIWPDZO9bO4eO0hnGSnCWo8_o4co\ 0gn3hn5in7in9jnBknEknGlnImnKmnMnnPonRonTpnVqnXqiVm\ eUiaTeYRaUQYQPUMNQIMMELJEKPEJUEI_DJGEIEEICEIAHJEJJ\ HMIKNINPHQQHTSGWTGZTFXTFVTDTTDRTDPUENVFLVGKWHIXIGY\ JEZKC_KA`K8aK6aK5bK7cK9dKBeKDfKFgKGhKIiKKjKMkKOkKP\ lKQlKQlKRlKRmKSnLSoLTpLTqLTrPapOcnNelMgkLihJkeHmcF\ o`DqYBsW9uYBs_CqaDocEmeFk } frm:MandelbrotMix4 {; 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, 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=========================================