Modern Visionaries Part III - Benoit Mandelbrot

"Think not of what you see, but what it took to produce what you see.” - Benoit Mandelbrot

"Nebulabrot" by Paul Nylander

In keeping with the mathematics theme established in the previous installment of this series (on Buckminster Fuller), Part III is about Benoit Mandelbrot.  It is impossible to ignore the “geodesic”, forward-looking genius of Benoit Mandelbrot.  Like Fuller before him, Mandelbrot used geometry to identify and educate us about the nature of infinity.  Mandelbrot’s elucidation of “fractals” may have given the human race a much closer look at nature’s grand design.  

Benoit B. Mandelbrot was born November 1924 and died on the 14^th of October, 2010.  A mathematician born in Poland but raised in France, Mandelbrot spent much of his life living and working in the United States.  Starting in 1951, Mandelbrot worked on problems and published papers in mathematics and applied math, information theory, economics, and fluid dynamics.  He became convinced that two key themes - fat tails and self-similar structures - ran through a multitude of common problems in those fields.

the Mandelbrot setPerhaps Mandelbrot's most famous contribution is the M-set.  Mandelbrot discovered the M-set in 1980; this discovery has been widely discussed in books such as The Fractal Geometry of Nature by Mandelbrot and Chaos by James Gleick and in scientific magazines (for example see the beautiful pictures and excellent summary in the July 1985 issue of Scientific American).

I am by no means a mathematician.  I’ve always been humbled by the complexities of higher mathematics, more of a right brained guy I guess.  Mandelbrot’s discovery of the “M-set” may well be a look in to the true fabric of Mother Nature, and sure enough, Mom speaks math.  

For those who are mathematically inclined, here is a brief outline of how the M-set is created: start with the expression z -> z^2 + c; choose two complex numbers z and c; solve the expression z^2 + c to get a new value of z; put the new z into the z^2 + c term and compute another z value; continue this process on a computer for much iteration.  Color coding the rate at which different values of c cause z to either (1) shoot off to infinity, (2) stabilize in the realm of finite numbers, or (3) go to zero creates the visual embodiment of the “m-world”.  One of the many wonders of this infinitely complex “world” is that it can be created by just a few simple lines of computer code that are repeated recursively.  From these little algorithmic loops comes the most rococo universe that anyone has ever seen.  No matter how many times you magnify the M-set to infinity, it continues to expand.  And you can see the M-set everywhere in nature.  Mandelbrot found a mathematical formula to describe a “fractal” (a term he invented to describe the M-set) – in which each part mimics the pattern of the whole.

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Modern Visionaries Part II - Buckminster Fuller

"For the first time in history it is now possible to take care of everybody at a higher standard of living than any have ever known.  Only ten years ago the "more with less" technology reached the point where this could be done.  All humanity now has the option of becoming enduringly successful." - Buckminster Fuller, 1980.

This Buckminster Fuller stamp is itself an achievement in design.

Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was born on July 12th, 1895 and died on July 1st, 1983.  Fuller was an American engineer, author, designer, inventor, and futurist. “Bucky” was the author of more than thirty books; he was responsible for creating and popularizing futuristic terms like “synergetics", “Spaceship Earth", and “ephemeralization” - terms many of us have heard and even used without knowing where they came from.  

Fuller attended Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts and after that began studying at Harvard University.  He was expelled from Harvard twice: first for spending all his money partying with a vaudeville troupe, and then, after having been readmitted, for his "irresponsibility and lack of interest." Fuller later described himself during this period as a non-conforming misfit in the fraternity environment.  

Buckminster Fuller went on to become one of the twentieth century's most futuristic, controversial, and creative thinkers.  Fuller is best known for inventing the geodesic dome, but Fuller had many other inventions - such as an air-streamed, three-wheeled car - and many influential ideas on how to benefit humankind.  Buckminster Fuller was truly a modern visionary.   

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Modern Visionaries Part I - Daniel Quinn

But such simple answers aren’t enough to reassure the people of your culture nowadays. Everyone is looking down, and it is obvious that the ground is rushing up towards, you-and rushing up faster every year. - Daniel QuinnIn a world where a pedigree in academia has been the de facto standard of acceptance for information provided to the world, a few remarkable un-credentialed people have come to the forefront of our social collective to provide earthshaking philosophical, technological, sociological, and just plain humanistic revelations that could very well have a major impact on the future of mankind.  

These people often come from backgrounds that have nothing to do with the insights and predictions for which they are well-known.  These people have been incredibly accurate in their predictions and in the application of many of their theories. They have been disregarded by their academic counterparts and brushed off as fantastical by much of academia.

One of these people is Daniel Quinn.  For this post, I would like to investigate the question: Is Daniel Quinn a sociologist?

Sociology is defined as:

the science of society, social institutions, and social relationships; specifically: the systematic study of the development, structure, interaction, and collective behavior of organized groups of human beings.

A person who is in the academic discipline of sociology is referred to as a sociologist or often a “social scientist”. Princeton’s online definition search provides this description for a social scientist:

someone who is an expert in the study of human society and its personal relationships.  

Concerning the non-academic Daniel Quinn, digging deeper into what really defines a sociologist becomes a little more complex than a simple yes or no answer

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