First visualized between 1979 and 1980, the Mandelbrot set quickly earned a privileged spot among computer-generated visual demonstrations. Benoit Mandelbrot himself got to see the set for the first time thanks to the folks at IBM. Today, the extraordinary processing power of modern platforms has set a new challenge: who can create the deepest Mandelbrot fractals? And as you might expect, there are several YouTube channels dedicated to that.
If you want a more precise explanation of Mandelbrot fractals, you can check out this article. I'll admit the technical details are a bit over my head, but the idea of creating complex shapes from simple rules is really appealing. Some fractals could even be interpreted as a kind of “digital LSD”. There are several programs for generating fractals, and on YouTube you can find plenty of channels devoted to them. Some focus exclusively on the beauty of the patterns, but there are also other goals—I mean reproducing the most difficult and deepest Mandelbrot fractals.
The numbers behind some of these videos are truly impressive. The maximum is usually set by the generation program itself, but there are cases like the Fractal Universe channel, with more than 750 million iterations. Regardless of those values, Mandelbrot fractals are beautiful. I imagine someone with enough skill could turn them into fabulous screensavers for testing computers and monitors. However, almost all of these videos carry a warning for epilepsy. The color and light changes are abrupt and happen at very high speed, so we repeat the warning. The plan is to enjoy, not to end up in the hospital…
