Sunday, May 06, 2007

One more video for Sunday

Sorry, but this is just too fucking kewl, both the music, Jonathan Coulton's Mandelbrot Set, and the video, a zoom on a mandelbrot set. It's infinitely complex, which means no matter how far in you zoom, there will still be complexity. It's a computer generated zoom using a relatively simple set of equations, from what I understand. Love the way Jonathan brings rorschach into it. Lyrics follow (technically, I'm supposed to be studying for my abnormal pscyh exam tomorrow, and instead here I am watching youtube videos. the abnormal psych is just *so* depressing. Another great reason not to go for the ph.d. in psych. At the master's level, I can (maybe!), hope to only be dealing with people who haven't got it *that* bad. This is actually an illusion, since the older and wiser (ha!) I get, the more I tend to suspect that we *all* more or less have it that bad. But I digress)




Pathological monsters! cried the terrified mathematician
Every one of them is a splinter in my eye
I hate the Peano Space and the Koch Curve
I fear the Cantor Ternary Set
And the Sierpinski Gasket makes me want to cry
And a million miles away a butterfly flapped its wings
On a cold November day a man named Benoit Mandelbrot was born

His disdain for pure mathematics and his unique geometrical insights
Left him well equipped to face those demons down
He saw that infinite complexity could be described by simple rules
He used his giant brain to turn the game around
And he looked below the storm and saw a vision in his head
A bulbous pointy form
He picked his pencil up and he wrote his secret down

Take a point called Z in the complex plane
Let Z1 be Z squared plus C
And Z2 is Z1 squared plus C
And Z3 is Z2 squared plus C and so on
If the series of Z’s should always stay
Close to Z and never trend away
That point is in the Mandelbrot Set

Mandelbrot Set you’re a Rorschach Test on fire
You’re a day-glo pterodactyl
You’re a heart-shaped box of springs and wire
You’re one badass fucking fractal
And you’re just in time to save the day
Sweeping all our fears away
You can change the world in a tiny way

Mandelbrot’s in heaven, at least he will be when he’s dead
Right now he’s still alive and teaching math at Yale
He gave us order out of chaos, he gave us hope where there was none
And his geometry succeeds where others fail
If you ever lose your way, a butterfly will flap its wings
From a million miles away, a little miracle will come to take you home

Just take a point called Z in the complex plane
Let Z1 be Z squared plus C
And Z2 is Z1 squared plus C
And Z3 is Z2 squared plus C and so on
If the series of Z’s should always stay
Close to Z and never trend away
That point is in the Mandelbrot Set
Mandelbrot Set you’re a Rorschach Test on fire
You’re a day-glo pterodactyl
You’re a heart-shaped box of springs and wire
You’re one badass fucking fractal
And you’re just in time to save the day
Sweeping all our fears away
You can change the world in a tiny way
And you’re just in time to save the day
Sweeping all our fears away
You can change the world in a tiny way
Go on change the world in a tiny way
Come on change the world in a tiny way

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

i kind of find that too freaky - its a little bit like eternity, neverending!

i love the song. they remind me of they might be giants.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ben,
I had this strange experience today where I looked at my blog which I haven't looked at in months and found a lot of "unmoderated comments" I'd never seen before... including some from you! I apologize for inadvertently ignoring what you'd written. One question you'd had was regarding posting books/movies as links in your profile... unfortunately I've no idea how to do so (if its any consolation, it seems this lovely feature has somehow been discontinued on my profile, so perhaps its no longer possible via blogspot??).
Your other comment was in response to the "what terrifies you the most" question of many months ago... and yeah, this other-people-knowing-me thing still gets me. I was reminded of this this past week after an intense conversation with a friend... I've spent a large chunk of time wondering, "so now that he know all this about me, how'll he respond??!"

Benjamin Ady said...

Arenda,

No need to apologize.

Thankyou *so* much for your hospitality a couple weekends ago. We, and I, had such a great time--it was exactly what we needed.

Hope to see you soon, and would love to hear about your potential connection with mosaic in bellingham

Benjamin Ady said...

Sam,

Megan also has that reaction to the idea of eternity. I find this intriguing. Have you two ever brainstormed about why this ... "That's a bit freaky/scary"?

Megs said...

it{s funny ' ending is terrifying and never ending is terrifying. i don{t get how people can happily talk of life for eternity in heaven and find that comforting, rather than terrifying. i{m with sam on this.