Recursions in the Sky
The most fascinating concept in computer science has to be recursion. Even when it’s not its pure form, recursion is just a beautiful concept:
A programming technique in which a program or routine calls itself to perform successive steps in an operation, with each step using the output of the preceding step.
It might not be the most efficient or the fastest way to do things, but it’s just damn cool. Some cool uses for them are quines, computing Fibonacci numbers and fractals.
Fractals and Fibonnaci numbers, along with the golden ratio, can be found in numerous places in nature. Tree branches and roots grow in a vary fractal nature. The spiral of a sea shell is dominated by the golden ratio. If you look closesly, recursive properties are found all over the universe.
I’ve known this link between recursion and nature for a while but this past summer, a co-worker at Grooveshark, Chris, and I have had many discussions about math and science. He revealed to me an idea of his that the universe is made of many self-similar structures: sub-atomic particles, atoms, solar systems, galaxies and even the mega structures of the universe. His goal is to describe the basic laws of physics using a fractal model. While this idea seems really crazy, I really like it because fractals have shown that very simple equations can describe very complex behavior (see Chaos theory).
A while back, I read an article describing evidence that the universe appears to be fractal at certain scales. Currently, there is no theory to describe why this occurs and due to the limitations of modern technology, scientists cannot prove this observation at larger scales. Despite these limitations, I really do believe there might be something “fractal” behind the basic structures of the universe. Here’s a really uncanny picture proving this point. While there are many theories trying to bridge the gap between quantum theory and relativity, only string theory and its variations have come close. While I wait for Chris to finish his fractal model of physics, here’s some cool recursive and fractal music to check out:
