African Fractals-TED.com

[Jonas]

Hey All,

 

 

At first watch I was at a loss of how they developed such creative mathematics and architecture. After no sleep I came with this conclusion, if you would be so kind as to scrutinize: In the development of mathematics the progression could be described as having evolutionary traits. As much as we love to learn just for the sake of sating a ferocious curiosity we unfortunately would not get as many grants as the people claiming that their math/physics can better mankind. So our math tends to follow the needs of the time. In the case of western civilization you see an abundance of grid/simple geometric systems from street layout to pipeline. In the case of "backwards" third world communities in Africa, you are given these fractal patters as seen readily in nature. Given enough time, this "norm" of mathematics will "evolve" into Architecture, games, religion, etc. Any thoughts?

 

Cheers

Jonas

[the tree]

A fascinating video, thanks for linking to it.

 

I would disagree about maths following the needs of the time, often work into pure maths turns out to have an application but only a hundred years later.

 

It's not a hugely complicated idea to have a regressive structure, and when an idea works, it catches on.

 

A general familiarity with scaling such as you might get from the structure of your village may mean that your mind is more likely to think of it when it comes to looking for an engineering solution such as with the fence maker. By the same reasoning, a society where numbers are important will develop new numerical concepts because that's what they've already been thinking about.