I'm entranced & intrigued by fractals, epecially when they reveal themselves to me in nature, where they seem to be ubiquitous. I find it strangely comforting to see the fabric of reality itself obeying simple laws that produce breathtakingly complex results. So after considering the evidence all around us, Science can prove that complexity in Nature arises from simplicity, not a deity. Religious Fundamentalists of all creeds also have simple answers to complex questions. Unfortunately in their case, no evidence is required (they would call it "faith"). I believe this is an excellent example where absence of evidence is evidence of an absence (between their ears!). The ferns & stones fractal shots I took myself. Maybe you'll become more aware of them in your world too (if you're not already, which you may well be). I tell you, once you start seeing them, you see them everywhere...
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Waking up to Chaos
It had been a while since I picked up one of my favorite books - Chaos by James Gleick. So after I awoke this morning thinking about the classic Creationist statement that “Life is just too complex to have come about by random”, I settled my restlessness by taking the book from my bookshelf and re-reading about some of the fractal relationships with nature.
It is interesting however that just about every life aspect, whether it be population study or bio-structure, can be broken down to and simulated with a fairly simple set of rules. It doesn’t take much to create the lungs, the skeleton, the circulatory system, etc. Once you start to see the world as a system of bifurcations, it’s the simplicity, not the complexity, that becomes awe-inspiring.
-CF
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