Everyone knows the famous 2D Mandlebrot fractal, but it’s 3D equivalent has been difficult to find. Daniel White has been working on it for the last few years with help from several mathematicians and has finally stumbled onto a formula that looks like it could be the elusive 3D Mandlebrot, the Mandelbulb.
Our story starts with a guy named Rudy Rucker an American mathematician computer scientist and science fiction author and in fact one of the founders of the cyberpunk science-fiction movement . Around 20 years ago along with other approaches he first imagined the concept behind the potential 3D Mandelbulb barring a small mistake in the formula which nevertheless still can produce very interesting results – see later and also wrote a short story about the 3D Mandelbrot in 1987 entitled “As Above So Below” also see his blog entry and notebook . Back then of course the hardware was barely up to the task of rendering the 2D Mandelbrot let alone the 3D version – which would require billions of calculations to see the results making research in the area a painstaking process to say the least.
Hit his site for several more pictures and details.
via Mandelbulb: The Unravelling of the Real 3D Mandelbrot Fractal.
