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Benoit Mandelbrot Dies At 85

Posted by Soulskill on from the edges-are-interesting dept.

Beetle B. writes "Benoit Mandelbrot has passed away at the age of 85. I first learned of the Mandelbrot set while reading Arthur C. Clarke's The Ghost From The Grand Banks. Soon after, I got hold of the best fractal generation software of the day — Fractint — and ran it for long periods of time on my XT, exploring the beautiful world that Mandelbrot, among others, had opened up for me. That it was only on a 4-color CGA did not deter me!"

6 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Fractint? Pah? by Viperpete · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I was going to post much the same thing. Some nerd eulogy, 10 words pertaining to the death of a math hero, ~70 devoted to the author. Can we get more HF Asperger/Narcissistic.

    --
    loose: not fitting closely or tightly != lose: to suffer the deprivation of
  2. Mandelbrot plot by JohannesJ · · Score: 5, Funny

    In school we had to plot Mandelbrots. Now Mandelbrot has a plot of his own.

  3. damn you rss! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/10/16/1446231/Benoit-Mandelbrot-Dies-At-85?from=rss

    rss takes another victim...

  4. Fractals.. a gateway drug to more complex models by seandoyle44 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I remember the Scientific American with the Mandelbrot set on the cover - it was a huge influence on my life. I was working as a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Board in DC and was losing interest in mathematical modeling as a way to understand anything in the real world. Most of the models I was dealing with were linear or mostly linear. When I read the article at first I thought it was some cheap trick or approximation... but gradually I realized it was different than anything I had seen before. So - being a rational, optimizing actor I then left the field of economics .. the most utility-maximizing decision I ever made :-) Since then I've always viewed fractals as a gateway drug to more complex models of the universe. So many processes unfold over time; fractals are just one of the ways to get a glimpse of what might be going on. Thanks Dr. Mandelbrot!

  5. Math and youth by ortholattice · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Defying the notion that mathematicians are over the hill at age 30, Mandelbrot made his fractal breakthroughs when he was in his 50s. It gives the rest of us some hope. :)

  6. Seen it all by dgriff · · Score: 5, Funny

    ran it for long periods of time [...] exploring the beautiful world

    Yeah, but when you've seen one part of the Mandelbrot set, you've seen it all.