String theory and its big brother M-theory blew my mind when I first learned about it. I was particularly attracted by the idea that it might take 11 dimensions to provide a unified "theory of everything". As a hobbyist in computer graphics, I spent a lot of time in university trying to imagine what it might be like to visualize higher dimensions by taking various 3D slices of hypercubes & the like and trying to animate them on the computer. Fun times, and a lot more interesting than the business software I write for a living these days!
Who's the author of Discipline? I might have to look it up, always interested in finding new reading material. And have you read Flatland? I think that was the start of my fascination with abstract geometrical spaces.
Same here! I am still utterly fascinated by the concept - and I wish we could really test for these maths to see of there is more validity behind it. I love trying to visualize what higher dimensions might look like -- the way space bends on itself is so cool! I can't say I've tried doing that exactly, but I have messed around with making some 3d fractals at least!
Discipline was written by Paco Ahlgren. I believe it's the only novel he has written and I don't think it had tons of sales, but I met him totally unplanned when I took a visit to Barnes and Noble as a young teenager. He said some things that really resonated with me as a kid that, if I'm being totally honest, had a profound impact on the way my life played out. I don't think I have read Flatland, but I've heard it mentioned before! I will definitely see if I can snag a copy next time I'm at the local library.
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I just checked out the Amazon page for Discipline. I think I'll make that my next read, looks like a great book. Thanks for the recommendation, and very cool that you got to meet the author!
Have you looked into quaternions? That's a good way to produce 3D fractals. I took a computer graphics course once where one of the class projects was to make a raytracer, and I spent some time playing around with raytracing quaternions. It amazes me how relatively simple looking mathematical equations can produce such endless beauty!
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I thought you might like to see one of the quaternion images I raytraced:
I'd love to see some of your artwork too; might be a good topic for a future post!
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I hope you enjoy the read! I will definitely share some art soon, I have plenty in the archives. I have never heard of quaternions but they sound right up my alley. That images is the exact kind of weird / organic looking shape that I love about 3d fractals!
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