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The Many Worlds theory of Quantum Physics suggests that for each possible manifestation of a given situation, an alternate universe is brought into existence.  Simply put, if you choose to use your turn signal at an intersection, you continue forward in a universe in which you did that.  However, the alternative choice of NOT using your turn signal results in another universe going forward where you didn't use it.  This kind of splitting of universes isn't limited to human choice.  For every subatomic partical, and all the ways it can come into existence, there is a new universe.

How I imagine this is as a huge fractal "Tree" forming into greater and greater complexity with each possible way things could go.  This tree forms through time, instead of on a 2D surface, however, with more and more alternate time lines branching out, approaching infinity.

I don't know enough about physics (or fractals) to put the equations associated with the Many Worlds Theory into fractal terms, unfortunately.  It would be an interesting study, to say the least.

The Rev

I have thought about this since I was young[er] and I actually have a meeting to set up with some professors to talk about this very thing.  I have always thought that one could use one of Schrodinger's time dependent equations to calculate all possible positions of a particle at any given time and treating each branch as a wave function.  This could then be altered in order to become an iterative function.  I have always wondered about the fractal dimension of the universe. :)

I don't know how accurate all of this is, Highschool physics doesn't really cover this much. :-\

Let me know how that goes.  I'd love to hear the thoughts discussed.

On a different order of magnitude, I have wondered about freewill as an iterative function in the same way.  Our lives, filled with choices, offer many branches of possibility.  Taken together, they too take on the form of a temporal fractal, in a sense.  Since the source of choice is the same center of personal being (brain, soul, whatever), there would have to be some degree of the formula that is constant, and feeding back on itself (learning, for example).  Perhaps, from this perspective, a different variation on the idea of beauty can be applied to sentient life.

The Rev

  As long as you mean degree of freedom as in mathematics.... :D  

  Imagine living within a fractal.  Certain patterns would emerge, and could be predicted by the equivalent of classical physics.  There would be points of attraction (gravitation), like the 2d Mandelbrot main cardioid and sub period bulbs.

  The true chaotic (not random) nature of the fractal would exist at the quantum level (deep zoom), although replication of the "classic physics" would exist down at this level as well.  Prediction of probabilistic behaviors would be possible (as in QM), although exact behaviors could not be predicted without starting the iteration from the beginning and focusing on the specific point where the behaviors are occurring.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3iSfYT1Ijk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3iSfYT1Ijk)

I like the way you think!

The Rev

Well done Matt!

If your parents complain about how much time you spend on fractals, tell them i said it is worth it. It has given you such an insight.