Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Fractal Geometry: The Past or the Future
Technology and science is at the forefront of the future economy. This is proven in the past. Benoit Mandlebrot, a French mathematician, created a theory of geometry in the labs of IBM in the fifties. Fractal geometry was born in the advanced calculations of computers. Without this technology, Mandlebrot would have never discovered these mathematical patterns. He was accomplished in engineering, language,aeronautics, and economics. In the field of economics, he first applied his theories. He successfully predicted the cotton market by identifying patterns and similarities in the past market.He found symmetry in a very elusive economy by identifying self similarities over time.This gave his theories weight in intellectual societies of the day and spurred him further into his studies.He releases The Fractal Geometry in Nature in 1983, a piece that applies fractal geometry to nature i.e trees, mountains, hills, a leaf, a carrot.Mandlebrot wrote,"Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line." This use of FG made the measurement of natural shapes possible. Computers make fractional geometry possible. The application of this math has no limits. It is sure to be one of the many new tools which will define the technology of the future.Not only is this theory important to society and science but its beautiful as well. Its more than I could ever write.
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This is so on point! Noble prize winning economist Paul Krugman of Princeton University stated that FG was one of the many techniques he used to predict the current economic crisis years before it started. This tool has been used to predict downturns in economies, goods and services for years now, to state it clearly, it's a useful tool.
ReplyDeleteI don't know all that much about this topic, but I will be sure to look into it now that I have heard this little bit. It sounds a bit like calculus because of the explaination that reality is not basic shapes, in the same way calculus finds areas of irregular objects. If this can predict economic depressions, why can't we use this tool to benefit our ecnomoy moving forward? Guess I will have to go learn more about it!
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