Growing up with a passion for science in a family with ties in spirituality, it was perhaps inevitable that these two worlds would collide. This collision took place in 1993 when I discovered how to draw the picture below. In fact, it is not a picture at all, it is a plot of an equation.
What astounded me, was the simplicity of the equation, compared to the complexity of the plot. The equation is just a handful characters which describe a sequence. (Zn+1 is the next value, Zn is the last value, c is a constant. Each time we get the next value, we simple square the pervious value and add the constant. The plot shows sequences for different values of c. Example)
In fact the complexity of the plot is infinite, watch this video zooming in on the set and be truly astonished. This set me off on a life long (mostly private) journey to make sense of the world. My goal was be build a belief system I was (and am) comfortable with. My approach has been to apply Occam’s razor whenever possible, of course this is much easier in science than religion. .
I titled this ‘Perspective and Scale’ because those appear the most important questions common everywhere. Some examples of different lenses:
- The fundamental physics of astronomy (big scale) says virtually nothing of the science of quantum mechanics (small scale).
- The needs of the many overrule the needs of the few. Unless perhaps, you’re one of the few.
- Big corporations are strong and slow, start-ups are fragile and nimble.
- Stereotypes exist but every individual is different.
- Wildly different animals can share 95% or more of the same DNA.
- etc. etc…
I’ve created this largely for my own benefit and to have a record, but also in the hope that will be of interest and/or use to others. Much is up for debate, and I welcome constructive comment.
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