Allan1952
Fractal - The Von Neumann Building (Whole FOV80)
See the original size for details...
In response to a request from my friend 'Jakeukalane' Jay
When I found this 'building' within the machinations of the Mandelbulb3d software I realised it was a combination of formula that would yield many interesting images with varying perspectives and 'renderings'. I have subsequently made slight adjustments to such things as 'fold' and 'rotation' within the software calculation to produce different results. I am quite new to this software so the Von Neumann Building has nursed me through a formative stage. To me fractals are all about scale, or in some senses not about scale at all. I prefer my fractals to explore that ever diminishing but never disappearing realm of endless possibilities, a world of an inverse infinity that was beautifully characterised at the end of Richard Matheson's story 'The Incredible Shrinking Man'. The book and movie are still available, the movie is probably playing somewhere in the world as you read this.
Why the name...
I decided it would be nice if in society we decided to name things after people who have made immense positive contributions rather than the doubtful redundancy of naming them after our monarchs. It seems to me that no matter how badly they behave, no matter how much public money they take, no matter how much death and destruction they have caused over the course of (reconstructed) history they are still revered, human beings are strange primates indeed. Jon Von Neumann appears to me to have been a genuinely inspirational character and as the building is mathematical in its construction I thought it would be nice to name it after him. I think it is a fine construct (with all the credit for that going to the writers of the software) and I hope it is worthy of such a heady commemoration. If you haven't already done so I would urge you to have a look at the images in their 'original' size via the connections to my Flickr site.
In his marvelous series 'The Ascent of Man' Jacob Bronowski speaks very fondly of Von Neumann, if you have not seen the series it is very much worth watching.
Here is part one.....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioiP47bJ5d4
'....the paradox of the human condition'. Bronowski presents 'man' very much as an intellectual and cultural work in progress, something we are apt to forget.
It may be doubtful we would have computers at all if it were not for people like John Von Neumann and Alan Turing (See my Fractal 'The Turing Block'). In erecting monuments to people Turing is a fascinating case in point. Turing's work at Bletchley Park during the second world war enabled the allies to crack the German code apparatus and he is said to have considerably shortened the war. However Turing was later convicted for being homosexual and was chemically castrated by the British government, he was later to kill himself by administering cyanide in 1954. The British government recently, in an effort to expunge it's guilt over the affair issued him with a pardon, a pardon that was based largely on his enormous contribution to the war effort rather than the fact that he was convicted unjustly of being a homosexual. The truth of this is born out by the fact that there are many many similar cases the British government haven't overturned. Times change yet the self serving duplicity of governments seem to remain.
Another thing of interest to me is the brain. That marvelous flesh whose neurons are capable of more connections than there are atoms in the universe, just consider that for a moment.
So I decided to view structures within the Von Neumann Building like structures within the brain, purely on an aesthetic level rather than scientific. Hence we have such images as 'Sylvian Fissure' and 'The Explanatory Gap'. There is a point within the structure which can be viewed as either separating or joining and this I have named 'Separ (ation) jo (ining)...Separjo.
The building does appear as a city, but not a sci-fi 'city', but because of its creation it is one of science fact. As such I started to imagine what living in such a city would be like, and as a result certain images emerged with new names such as 'Dawn' and 'False Moon Glow'.
So I apologise if I have rambled on, something I am apt to do, but that is a little of the background thinking behind The Von Neumann Building.
I am grateful for your interest which did make me think....why haven't I shown the complete 'building' yet?... so here it is.
Thanks Jay...
Fractal - The Von Neumann Building (Whole FOV80)
See the original size for details...
In response to a request from my friend 'Jakeukalane' Jay
When I found this 'building' within the machinations of the Mandelbulb3d software I realised it was a combination of formula that would yield many interesting images with varying perspectives and 'renderings'. I have subsequently made slight adjustments to such things as 'fold' and 'rotation' within the software calculation to produce different results. I am quite new to this software so the Von Neumann Building has nursed me through a formative stage. To me fractals are all about scale, or in some senses not about scale at all. I prefer my fractals to explore that ever diminishing but never disappearing realm of endless possibilities, a world of an inverse infinity that was beautifully characterised at the end of Richard Matheson's story 'The Incredible Shrinking Man'. The book and movie are still available, the movie is probably playing somewhere in the world as you read this.
Why the name...
I decided it would be nice if in society we decided to name things after people who have made immense positive contributions rather than the doubtful redundancy of naming them after our monarchs. It seems to me that no matter how badly they behave, no matter how much public money they take, no matter how much death and destruction they have caused over the course of (reconstructed) history they are still revered, human beings are strange primates indeed. Jon Von Neumann appears to me to have been a genuinely inspirational character and as the building is mathematical in its construction I thought it would be nice to name it after him. I think it is a fine construct (with all the credit for that going to the writers of the software) and I hope it is worthy of such a heady commemoration. If you haven't already done so I would urge you to have a look at the images in their 'original' size via the connections to my Flickr site.
In his marvelous series 'The Ascent of Man' Jacob Bronowski speaks very fondly of Von Neumann, if you have not seen the series it is very much worth watching.
Here is part one.....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioiP47bJ5d4
'....the paradox of the human condition'. Bronowski presents 'man' very much as an intellectual and cultural work in progress, something we are apt to forget.
It may be doubtful we would have computers at all if it were not for people like John Von Neumann and Alan Turing (See my Fractal 'The Turing Block'). In erecting monuments to people Turing is a fascinating case in point. Turing's work at Bletchley Park during the second world war enabled the allies to crack the German code apparatus and he is said to have considerably shortened the war. However Turing was later convicted for being homosexual and was chemically castrated by the British government, he was later to kill himself by administering cyanide in 1954. The British government recently, in an effort to expunge it's guilt over the affair issued him with a pardon, a pardon that was based largely on his enormous contribution to the war effort rather than the fact that he was convicted unjustly of being a homosexual. The truth of this is born out by the fact that there are many many similar cases the British government haven't overturned. Times change yet the self serving duplicity of governments seem to remain.
Another thing of interest to me is the brain. That marvelous flesh whose neurons are capable of more connections than there are atoms in the universe, just consider that for a moment.
So I decided to view structures within the Von Neumann Building like structures within the brain, purely on an aesthetic level rather than scientific. Hence we have such images as 'Sylvian Fissure' and 'The Explanatory Gap'. There is a point within the structure which can be viewed as either separating or joining and this I have named 'Separ (ation) jo (ining)...Separjo.
The building does appear as a city, but not a sci-fi 'city', but because of its creation it is one of science fact. As such I started to imagine what living in such a city would be like, and as a result certain images emerged with new names such as 'Dawn' and 'False Moon Glow'.
So I apologise if I have rambled on, something I am apt to do, but that is a little of the background thinking behind The Von Neumann Building.
I am grateful for your interest which did make me think....why haven't I shown the complete 'building' yet?... so here it is.
Thanks Jay...