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Fractal life progression (a musing I found interesting enough to want to share)

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Brayn

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Jul 14, 2012
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I was walking home in the dark, pondering as I always do in my idle time.

I had music playing, headphones on wherever it wasn't too dark.

I may have altered my state before getting on the bus. :P The usual after work bowl.

And here's my thought:

As I go through life and I look back, I see my old self is dwarfed by my new self. Not in physical growth but in mind expansion. Every few years, I'll find I was a small piece of what I am, over and over.

And I thought life proceeds like zooming out of a fractal image. The apparent boundaries of the mind expand further and further, and once in a while, I notice that image of my former self seems smaller, the small details seem less vivid, the whole thing loses depth when compared to what I've become.

Not to sound like I think I'm great, but like I think that no matter how many times I experience this phenomenon, I'll know there's more beyond the horizon if I live long enough to see it. Not going to speculate what happens after death though...

Any reflections, objections, differing viewpoints, spin-offs, etc are welcome. It was just a random thought, so I'm not expecting a debate or anything, but I have no objection to whatever spawns from this random thought, if anything at all.
 
Yes, people change. We're introduced to new data.
There's this thing in Buddhism talking about the 5 identities/ways of self-identification and I read someone who had worded it much more eloquently than this will be, but the person you are now isn't the person you were 5 years ago. You're still the same person obviously, I'm not saying somebody took your consciousness whilst you were sleeping and put it in a different body, but what I am saying is that I don't really care and you can use search engines and shit
 
So what have you actually discovered?
And why does fractal have anything to do with getting older. Or are you trying to tie existence in with mathematics for some unknown reason? Maybe in an attempt to imply predetermination?
 
I like the image. I totally agree, I too find myself to be exponentially wiser than before. Even still knowing very little, what I know now is so much more than what I used to know. You could think of my old self as a small fractal getting lost in the bigger picture which has expanded in all directions.
 
limitsoflanguage said:
So what have you actually discovered?
And why does fractal have anything to do with getting older. Or are you trying to tie existence in with mathematics for some unknown reason? Maybe in an attempt to imply predetermination?
Click to expand...

I think he was just trying to show an image. He succeeded if that's so. I do not at all think that mathematics could be fitted into existence. Although they are probably there, I don't think we could grasp all the variables. Not in a hundred lifetimes. We do become wiser in time and this image could also be applied to something else: It's very easy to lose sight of things. Time changes everything. Time erases, time heals, time turns mountains to plains, time kills. Although you have grown into a larger image you should never forget the original little square from where you've come from and all the successive bigger (but now smaller, almost invisible) pieces of your life.


Edit: If you lose sight of those old things your self image/fractal wall of self (if you wish) starts having holes in it. Not a good thing.
 
A fractal image itself is mathematically derived. I think limits was thinking about it in terms of logic/maths/objectively than aesthetics/emotions/subjective reaction.
I'd also disagree about the hole thing, you don't have to ruminate/cling to the past in order to have a complete/perfect self-image, in fact I think the opposite. I'd say doing so puts holes in it, although holes isn't the right word.
 
@ DeathDomokun I see what you mean. My guess is we are both trying to say the same thing but can't agree on the wording. Yes, clinging to the past is not a good thing. Letting go is a huge part of growing wiser. What I see is the old shell of what I used to be but with loads of new stuff built upon it, like the chassis of myself. I see a construction of whole new layers of knowledge built upon the old shell that I had to abandon and grow out of, but will always be there. I am no longer that old person, I am not in there anymore, but who I am now is built on top of it.
Fractals are a very 'squared' way of seeing it. The idea of a chassis seems more appealing for expressing the idea. And, no, holes are not a good way of putting it. They would be more like replaced auto parts built upon the original chassis.
Whether there could be deeper personal growth out of that chassis, I am yet to find out. I am not sure if one could change so much. There are things in life that one cannot forget. Even if you forget about them, they hang around. Things that are a part of you, things that ARE you. I see rich people having toasts for breakfast (instead of cake, you know what I mean?)
 
What do you know, a conversation actually spawned out of it. This is what I was hoping for.

Thanks for the varying views.

And yes, showing an image would fit the description for what I'm doing. A thought assembled in my head isn't equivalent (in my opinion anyways) to a fact discovered by observation.
 
It isn't. Hence the "isn't" in the quote you quoted.

Edit: Incase it isn't clear... I made a musing, didn't claim a fact. That should be obvious enough, but I've got a feeling it isn't.
 
Well, I have observed these things to be a fact. I Do see people stuck within the boundaries of that old self which they already outgrew but can't see that they have. So they get what they always got. This is the usual 'I've become my father' kind of thing. Accomplishing real personal growth would mean to not become that from which you come but to become something new and different, something that you don't know what it is. That is, you never fully know yourself, not even in death. You could surprise yourself and find out you have made of yourself something new or you could bore yourself falling into the same old (good or bad) stuff you've known all your life (ie stay within the original chassis and never do any real improvements.
 
@limitsoflanguage

You saying there's no difference between fact and speculation? Or just representing the view that fact and truth are unknowable? I'm representing the view that fact and truth are at least partially gleanable if one makes the assumption that this whole experience isn't a dream. If it is, you're just some dream character and I don't have to listen to you. :P But I'm gonna assume you're a real human being, just for the sake of simplifying my world view.

@max_

I do think it's possible to get used to the image of the old you in your head. I think that's why I have to look back once in a while and see where I came from, where I've been going etc. Just to refresh my perspective up to the current model of me. And there's no assumption that my growth is positive. Sometimes I pick up bad habits and negative thought patterns and such, and have to spend a lot of time changing that. But whether positive or negative, new content is being written to whatever internal storage mechanism stores all my mind. Doesn't have to be meaningful content. New people I've met, new world views I've come across, new porn I've watched, the latest political happenings, the latest scientific discoveries and frauds, and whatever experiences I have added onto what I could possibly remember if my state of mind allows recovery of the memory. I bet even my random ponderings get recorded to some extent, and so there's more stuff to sift through if I want to make sense of what's all in there.
 
Brayn said:
You saying there's no difference between fact and speculation? Or just representing the view that fact and truth are unknowable?
Click to expand...
Science and religion hold that view.
I hold the opposite view.

Brayn said:
And there's no assumption that my growth is positive.
Click to expand...
'Negative growth' could be the exact-opposite of what you seek. I'm making an assumption here - of course - but it may be an important thing to know?!
 
I used to be one of those atheist fundamentalist science-faith people. :P I realized eventually that the dream of good honest science was tainted with the reality of greed and other interests, and so while there have been advances and neat stuff like that due to science, there's also a lot of dogmatic garbage, calling people "deniers" and sounding rather religious in the process.

And don't worry, I don't seek negative growth. I was just showing that the analogy could apply regardless of moral direction. We can only hope any one of us is growing positively overall due to general effort in that area. :)
 
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