top of page
  • Facebook
Search

A fractal world

Kley V

Updated: Nov 17, 2020

Fractal geometry is one of the most fascinating theories about the real world. The concept that a simple pattern, applied to itself over and over, can produce shapes found in nature is simply amazing. This capacity to describe real things inspired me to include fractals in A Lifetime Waiting For Eternity.


How it is at small scale, it is at large scale

There are many examples where similar (or self- similar) behaviours are found at different scales. Take the example of the Romanesco Broccoli (picture above) with each bud composed of a series of smaller buds. Or look at the Nautilus shell, with a shape that resemble the microscopic marine snail and the cosmological Milky Way galaxy. This self-similarity found at different scales is one of the most attractive properties of fractals. Fractals look "roughly" the same on any scale. So I took this concept and, after playing around for a while, I applied it to Ely's multi-dimensional world.


A self-similar space

What if, what we call scales can be visualized as storeys of a building. The space where we live in would be made of layers or "storeys". A galactic scale is a "storey" many levels above our "storey" and the microscopic scale is a "storey" many levels below. In the same way we can get to a window of a building and look up or down to see different storeys, we can get a microscope and look down into small scales or get a telescope and look up at large scales (e.g. the universe).


The interesting thing about this conceptualisation of a self-similar world is that each scale represents a storey where living beings can move, interact, exist. However, in Ely's world, I needed also to make the characters actually "walk" down to smaller scales like we do when we walk down from a storey to a lower one using the stairs in a building. So, I used the analogy of a stair to create a dimension that is perpendicular to all other 10 dimensions of the M-theory, allowing Ely to move up and down across scales.


The additional dimension expands the stage where characters perform their actions. So far Ely's world is made of:

  • our well-known 3D space,

  • time as a volumetric dimension

  • scales as space "storeys"

And there are many other dimensions ready to be discovered ...




23 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


Contact

Contact me using the form below, or write directly to: kleyv@kleyvnovels.com

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you!

Thanks for submitting!

© 2020 by Kley V. All rights reserved

  • Facebook
bottom of page