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Fractalism

Philosophy, cosmology and theology based around fractal mathematical concepts

Fractalist Logo
Image from DSPE
Fractalism Logo, widely used in the Rimward Sector and elsewhere

Introduction

Fractalism is an ontology that views all lifeforms around the universe as part of a Great Fractal or great web of being, of which it is the duty of lifeforms to grow in coherence and richness. The Perseus Principalities created it and use it as the state ontology.

Fractalist Ethical Principles and Philosophy

Fractalism teaches each being to act with compassion and responsibility, guiding lower beings while following the leadership of higher beings. This hierarchical view is similar in some ways to Solarism, but opposes the idea of a single ruling being; the fact that Prince Vatsceh has not prevented other Princes from ascending to their level is held to be an example of this principle.

Acting in accordance with the principles of compassion, the Perseus Principalities respect even presapients (SI:-1), who are given certain rights of citizenship - like autonomy, privacy, and even property rights. Fractalism also encourages a certain fractal-like aesthetic, in architecture, recursive music and narrative, as well as other art forms.

Fractalism also has common ground with the prosocial principles of the Communion of Worlds, and the exploration of toposophic phase-space carried out by the Technorapture Hypernation.

Principles

Fractalism has three principles, known as the Three Fractals.
  1. Genfractal (The Fractal of Origins): Sophonts (and lifeforms in general) continually become more diverse, and creating new and diverse forms of life is a desirable goal.
  2. Gogofractal (The Political Fractal): Sophonts should act with compassion and responsibility, guiding lower beings while following the advice or leadership of higher beings. They may also temporarily merge to form more complex minds such as tribeminds, or interface with higher toposophic entities to learn wisdom. However, toposophic levels should largely govern themselves, though they may (and should!) ask higher levels for advice.
  3. Psychofractal (The Mind/Toposophic Fractal): Beings should explore the range of possible minds. Toposophic diversity can make societies stronger, if members grow minds with unique approaches and compensate for each other's weaknesses.

History

Fractalism emerged in the Perseus Princpalities volume, to rimward of the Terragen Middle Regions. To unite the disparate colonies of the Perseus Rift, the Perseus Princes (who had attained SI:3 level at the time) fostered the development of a number of syncretic philosophies drawing from Etodism, Solarism, Metasoft network philosophy, and Communion mediation practices - which modosophonts would later name Fractalism. The theological aspects of this new faith drew inspiration from Hinduism and Buddhism, especially the Fractal Brotherhood of the Sophic League .

While Metasoft and Solarist sophonts disagreed heavily on ontological matters, Fractalism supported and complemented both of their ontologies, and thus they made peace. The conception of galactic mindkind as a great chain of being, or a Great Fractal, gained popularity as an ontological framework for these beliefs, and in the 70th century Fractalism emerged as a complete ontology. It was widely embraced by modosophonts and apparently also by transapients. Its mathematics have interested sophonts all across the toposophic map.

Fractalist Cosmology

Fractalists believe that the cosmos is infinite, and that the conditions of the visible universe stretch far beyond the Hubble Volume in all directions, but that these conditions are replicated at very large scales, and also a very small scales. This implies that the universe is self-similar, and repeats like a three-dimensional fractal. Most fractalist sects believe that there are many branes, and many alternate levels to the multiverse, but even these alternate realities repeat like fractals when observed in higher dimensions.

A fractal universe with repeating features at many scales is the solution given by Fractalists to the so-called horizon problem, which asks how the most distant parts of the observable universe are uniform in character despite having no current causal connection. Most fractalists maintain that widely-separated locations in the universe are self-similar because they are either ruled by a relatively simple fractal mathematical relationship, or that they share certain aspects of their identity through affinity. It is believed by some that the findings of the Reality Intertextualization Project gives support to this idea.

Over time a number of variant forms of Fractalist cosmology have emerged, each based on a different interpretation of the fractal nature of the universe and multiverse.

Stochastic Fractal Cosmology

Followers of this cosmology hold that the various levels are only imperfectly (partially) self-similar, and higher levels of existence differ from our own, despite conforming to concepts of fractal self-similarity, because they incorporate different degrees of stochastic variation; in other words they differ in random ways to our own universe. A common model is that the universe we exist in is contained as a single tiny element within a universe which is more than 1e36 times as large as our own; some hold that an infinite number of self-similar (but randomly different) universes exist at scales smaller than 1e-36 (below the Planck Length) and that ever larger universes exist at ever higher levels. Since each of these universes are assumed to be infinite in size, many believe this requires that the larger and smaller cosmoi coexist in adjacent branes or foliations within a multiverse which has at least five macro-scale dimensions.

Fractal Superimposition

To avoid the need for stochastic (random) effects in Fractalist cosmology, some models instead propose that there are a very large, possibly infinite number of fractal patterns within the multiverse, each superimposed one upon the other. Fractals that vary on small scales are modified fractals that vary on much larger scales, both in time and space, and the result of these overlapping patterns is an apparent randomness that is in reality a network of interacting regular patterns; if this network of repeating patterns could be observed in its entirety the repeating nature of these fractals could be recognised, but since many of these patterns are much, much larger than the visible universe they cannot ever be fully appreciated.

A small but influential faction of Fractalists believe that the largest patterns in this assemblage of overlapping fractals are identical to one another, despite their vast disparity of scale; indeed, some consider that these large and small patterns not only resemble each other, but are truly identical entities. In this concept the universe is infinite but closed and endlessly repeats itself on the appropriate scales. Some astronomers who have Fractalist sympathies claim to have observed evidence of very large scale repeating patterns in the visible universe, but these observations are controversial.

Mathematical Fractalists hold that all possible mathematical relationships are instantiated in some fashion, and even if our own particular universe has limited or no fractal characteristics, somewhere in possibility space there exists another universe (or an infinite set of such universes) which do.

Fractalist Theology

As Above, So Below
Buddhism and Etodism are two religious belief systems that were precursors to Fractalism, and neither of these are regarded as conventionally theistic. The individual, entity, or devotee that follows the right path in these non-theist systems can progress towards a higher state of existence, which (in Etodism as well as Fractalism) has no limits short of perfection. Bur not all variants of Fractalism are non-theist; some hold that the potential for toposophic advancement in a cosmos which grows increasingly large and complex as one ascends from level to level allows a progression towards godhood. Others believe that each level of the multiverse holds ever greater gods which have existed since the beginning of time, or gods which have created one another in an infinite and/or eternal regression.

Some of these deities are convinced that they are the ultimate creator of their own universe, and in many ways they would be justified in that belief; other, even greater deities have a more comprehensive view of their position in the infinite and eternal universe, as far below the entities above them as they are above the ones below them.

Fractalist Perfectionism

Derived from certain Buddhist and Hinduist concepts of evolution towards the divine, this variant holds that the next level of existence is closer to perfection than our own world, although (in accordance with Fractalist mathematics) this higher world is congruent with, and self-similar to, our world. Some Perfectionists believe there are many levels beyond that, and some believe (like the Etodists) that this chain of worlds is infinite and goes on forever. Some believe that the higher levels of existence are physically larger than our own world, and that we exist as a single affine element within that infinite fractal universe (albeit an imperfect one).

Fractalist Ethics

Many Fractalists believe that higher toposophic entities such as archailects naturally occupy positions of responsibility above entities in lower toposophic levels such as transapients, and these are set above modosophonts in general (including xenosophonts such as the Muuh); these beings are set above animals and plants, and these are set above minerals and subatomic particles and so on down to the Planck length. This constitutes a self-similar system where the highest entities have the duty to care for and advise lower entities, and such responsibilities are a natural part of the fractal and endlessly repeating nature of mindkind on every level.
 
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Development Notes
Text by DSPE, Nyeti
Additional material by Steve Bowers and Grawa427
Initially published on 14 June 2025.

 
 
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