Can anything be without a cause?

[Pincho Paxton]

Where does chaos theory fit in? No 2 fractles are identical, yet any 2 of a given class are recognized as such. If you run a fractle program on this screen, and blow it up, you will find the same pattern. You can keep on blowing it up repeatedly, and you keep seeing the same fractle pattern. But then suddenly, at some point, one more iteration, and the screen is just snow. Total randomness. Yet, iterate that randomness for a while, and then suddenly there is the original fractle class again.

What is the cause of this? And why is it that you cannot make a fractle that iterates as it zooms without random numbers?

That is just a total illusion. Infact, anything programmed on a computer is very robotic. True chaos would require just some floating material, and an observer. Perhaps that's why we smoke..lol?

[Ignis Fatuus]

average,

I'm sorry you cherish a delusion more than its worth.

You're doing the same thing.

[tooyi]

And why is it that you cannot make a fractle that iterates as it zooms without random numbers?

Fractals don't need random numbers.

Computers don't have random numbers. They do have pseudorandom ones. They always require a seed from which the next number is determined by an equation.

Fractal doesn't really create chaos at any level. The computer at some point runs out of precision and the algorithm providing the iteration is unable to provide results.

Mathematically the fractal at some point can cross a treshold into chaos (see bifurcation) but even then you must realize that it is only a conceptual tool to describe a level of analysis, where the chaos appears, but really isn't. It would just be insane to try to build a larger and larger picture with higher and higher resolution.

Anyway, fractals can be pretty but as an explanation to what goes on, they seem to be more of a distraction than a stepping stone.