I've begun a new topic on this thread,
http://www.fractalforums.com/let%27s-collaborate-on-something!/implosion-group-fractalfield-com-projects-updatescollaboration-invited/, because it's over 90 days old.
I actually find this interesting on numerous levels, not simply Dan Winter’s content, but these rather clipped responses from the Fractal Forum’s intellectual readership. Yes, the voluminous pages to Fractal Field Research are overloaded with unsorted information, Dan is evidently a better thinker than writer. Actually, even though I’m non-technical, I found much of what I read to be very clear, even engaging. One shouldn’t have to read diagonally, wading through the information overload to find value.
But though Dan’s prose lacks effective exposition, I experienced a moment of irony reading Stereoman’s comment, “there’s impossible to understand a single sentence”, here’s why. When I first discovered Fractal Forums, I was so amazed at these creative math minds like kids in a candy store, deep diving into unknown worlds overlapping science and art. I grew curious about 3D fractal’s beginnings, managed to trace the core discussion back to a thread (see
http://www.fractalforums.com/the-3d-mandelbulb/first-appearance-of-thec-'mandelbulb'/), a very long thread it was, read 76 pages written in the foreign language that math is to me. I stuck with it because I was curious about the passion behind those hotly pursuing this holy grail. One writer had commented something along the lines, “give it up, you should be happy with the 2D Mandelbrot, it’s beautiful enough...” But Daniel White persevered, took a week off of work to invent triplex numbers, and one of the things he mentioned encouraging him of gold was his observation of fully scaled 3D fractal behavior in nature, specifically that of magnetic field lines. The solar system’s magnetosphere, that of Earth, that of a tiny magnet in the palm of your hand, infinitely inward and outward, that reality Dan fed on in chasing the formula leading to this awesome group’s Mandelbulb.
Perhaps, you’re on to the irony without my pointing it out. Dan Winter’s passion is driven, not by generating cool art or solving interesting math puzzles for puzzle’s sake, rather in observing and describing the same physics of magnetic field lines that inspired Daniel White. Whether you agree with Dan Winter’s assertions about the physics involved or not, whether or not you have and take the time to even review them, even a cursory glance at his work tells you this isn’t just “an ad for a water filter”. C’mon people, where’s the curiosity?!!
On a final note, my first learning of the Mandelbrot Set was in James Gleick’s “Chaos Theory — The Making of a New Science”, a great read. In light of which the Universe’s many secrets have and continue to yield to students of this new science, I believe we owe it to ourselves to receive an interesting mind like Dan Winter, cut him some slack on presentation, on any number of difficult to swallow notions he’s “peddling”, and show some curiosity. I’m not the guy to vett his physics or math, many of you are. I’d love to see what happens.