Oddbean

I wouldn't say that, because nothing is a perfect clone of something else, nor a perfect cycle, it's more like a spiral... They are sequences that occur within similar parameters, and that occur more in one direction, that of attenuation and dispersion, according to the law of entropy / chaos theory.

the formula is a short hand for a dynamical equation, like the ones from fractals, `f(t+1) = a*f(t)`, "the next state is dependant on what happened in its previous state" With `f(f)=f` its more mind bendy than that. f is a function, which takes itself as an input, and produces itself. For something to be a live (living as a process, alive as a state), it must come from something alive (if you subscribe to a specific definition of life). It itself is the origin. Sparked from a section of the article. https://i.nostr.build/qizoaN5EKD36CdLn.jpg