I certainly give Mandelbrot credit for inventing the word "fractal" and popularizing the notion with at least 1 1/2 highly engaging books, to the point that it is now a household word. But he made no effort to dispel the widespread erroneous notion that he invented the concept of fractional-dimensional sets. That idea goes back at least to Hausdorff, who invented -- surprise! -- Hausdorff measure. (Does it go back further?) --Dan Fred wrote: << The one time I attended a talk by Mandelbrot, I came away with a very low opinion of his verbal skills: whatever might have been going on in his mind, when he attempted to express it he seemed incapable of anything more than high-flown waffling. The interview you quoted does little to dispel this impression. . . .
Sometimes the brain has a mind of its own.