Yeah, but what has that got to do with the price of bread?

“The questions philosophers ask are not so much meaningless as irrelevant.”

Marty Rubin

Hot air. Useless rambling. A waste of your time. These are fair claims often proven true. To philosophise may be to over emphasise the value of your own thought but God forbid you should ever undervalue it.

The challenge with a proposition like a fractal universe based on iterative function is relevance. But to my mind that shouldn’t be a problem. After all fractality has relevance at all scales. So as much as it is relevant to superclusters and electron clouds it must have a relevance at our fingertips. So let’s explore how.

I think the key here is to assess the building blocks and outputs of the iterative function system for day to day relevance. We have explored this in general terms previously. Again with the example of Barnsley’s Fern we have inputs of random values, processes of applying a range based rule set to dealing with the input, and an output of a fractal form with self similar structure through the length scales. We have also come to understand this fractal form as a representation of the data produced from the repetitive process. A map of functional output per say. And the operation at play can be anything that takes this form. What has potentially random input, a set of rules applied based on conditions at hand and repetition in action? Well life, that’s what. Everything you recognise as life is subject to this style of process.

Life is if/else.

From heart beats through brainwaves to day to day mundane activities. Here’s a really simple question for you. What time did you eat your dinner this evening? I can guarantee you that if you plotted your dinner times over the last 5 years it would produce a near bell shaped curve or an overlay of multiple near bell shaped curves. Why? Because the time that you eat your dinner is an output of a process with random inputs and a set of rules governing how you deal with those random inputs. Lots of things affect the input to your decision making around meal times. But you place those things in the context of your need to eat and make decisions to make it happen. It’s an iterative function system that plays out every day of your life if you’re lucky enough. Better than that. Every action you take is likely to fall within this paradigm. Many rules you have no control over. Many so called rules are ignored.

“A consistent man believes in destiny, a capricious man in chance.”

Benjamin Disraeli

But everyone has rules. Rules they create for themselves. These rules drive decision making and ultimately shape our lives. The key to being able to benefit from the local effects of a fractal universe is to harness the power of rule setting and decision making in our own lives. We have belief systems shaped by our previous experiences of pleasure and pain and the opinions of those we trust. We each have a set of values that plays a large part in defining our identity. Herein lies the rules.

“Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters”

Nathaniel Emmons

One of the great beauties of the Barnsley Fern is it’s effectiveness in metaphor. When the rules are unchanged and the process iterated a series of what appear at first to be random dots slowly morph into a recognisable image. This is the action of consistent thought and decision making. The work of the master who hones his art over long periods of time through strength of will. By contrast this is also the pathway to addiction. Where neurological associations are strongly reinforced to negative effect. Each it’s own fern. Each it’s own near normal distribution of behaviour.

We can play with the concept. Change the rules from time to time as the iteration continues. This represents two important factors in our lives. The negative effects of a scatter brain approach to decision making. The positive effect of exploring new experiences doing things differently and the capacity that each of us has for change. How old habits can disappear in the background of the adherence to new rules. The importance of a forthright attitude, perseverance, taking action and patience. These are not just ideas. They are manifested in iterative function systems. Visual mathematical proofs of philosophical thoughts. Now here is where I believe we have crossed a new frontier.

Many will argue that a theory of everything must encompass gravity and quantum mechanics. I would argue that there is something lacking and perhaps even lazy in that sentiment. Simply because it lacks relevance. Einstein had a theory of relativity. But it didn’t relate to the most important aspects of human experience. If anything it was a little abstract. Planck, Heisenberg and Schroeder had theories that placed much on chance that were in many ways more abstract. Relevance was anything but intuitive. The unification of these two diverse paradigms is only possible from a first principles approach to the issue of existence. I would contend that what are touted as primary governing rules for our universe are more likely 3rd or 4th order outworkings of underlying rules of a fractal universe. A “Frondity” if you like. If you don’t believe me, have a look around. It’s been staring us in the face since the dawn of time. The trees, the bracken, the brain, the electron cloud, the supercluster. Right under our noses and hidden in plain sight.

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