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From: ph@miro.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Heckbert)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: fractals as bad science
Message-ID: <19544@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 14 Nov 89 20:17:43 GMT
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: ph@miro.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Heckbert)
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
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There's an interesting opinion piece on the hype and publicity regarding
fractals in the current issue of "Mathematical Intelligencer":

    Steven Krantz
    "Fractal Geometry"
    The Mathematical Intelligencer, Vol. 11, No. 4, Fall 1989.

which you should be able to find in a nearby college library.
To quote some of Krantz' more provocative statements:

    "Hailed as a lingua franca for all of science, the theory of
    fractals is said by some to be the greatest idea since calculus.
    ...
    One notable difference between fractal geometry and calculus
    is that fractal geometry has not solved any problems.
    It is not even clear that it has created any new ones."

The journal also printed a rebuttal by Mandelbrot, who basically
defends his work as highly regarded, but does not address Krantz'
contention that the study of fractals has been unscientific.

Check it out!

Paul Heckbert, CS grad student
508-7 Evans Hall, UC Berkeley		INTERNET: ph@miro.berkeley.edu
Berkeley, CA 94720