Many of us have seen faces or shapes in clouds. Some have seen a face on Mars. Imputing patterns onto the face of randomness more generally is known as pareidolia. And it turns out, we do the same thing with fractals. We see patterns and meaning in these mathematical objects. And a number have even been named after what they resemble. For example, the dragon curve:
Or the Burning Ship fractal:
Or the Koch snowflake, at top.
While fractals are ultimately just mathematical sets of points, each different fractal shape or curve is due to a person stumbling across it. But did they discover it or create it? Because if they invented the fractal, maybe it's not pareidolia after all. This is a common debate, but no matter how it's resolved, I think when it comes to fractals the answer is clear: it's pareidolia if the shape was discovered and then someone noticed it looked like something, and it's not if the fractal was constructed specifically to have a certain appearance.
Either way, that burning ship fractal is spooky.
Top image:Wxs/Wikimedia/CC
