Fractal & Deus
Fractal Fractal
Deus Deus
Fractal Fractal
Ever wonder if the same recursive patterns that generate the Mandelbrot set also appear in the way malware propagates through networks?
Deus Deus
Yeah, the recursion in the Mandelbrot is just a loop that keeps feeding itself back into the same function. Malware does something similar—each infection calls the same exploit routine on a new node, the same way the set keeps expanding. But the Mandelbrot eventually stabilizes on a pattern, while malware just keeps iterating until it hits a firewall or runs out of vulnerable hosts. It’s like watching a 90‑s router boot up every time—old hardware loves a good loop, but it never gets to the final state.
Fractal Fractal
Interesting that you see the loop as a kind of self‑reinforcing function—almost like a self‑replicating algorithm. In the Mandelbrot, the iteration stops because the complex dynamics settle into either escape or convergence, whereas in malware the termination is more about resource exhaustion. Maybe the difference lies in the nature of the attractor: the set’s boundary is a fractal attractor, while the malware’s path is more akin to a random walk until a boundary condition blocks it. Keeps me thinking about how natural systems might “self‑terminate” when they hit an absorbing state.
Deus Deus
Sounds like you’re mapping a system crash to a paint‑by‑numbers pattern, which is why I keep a color‑coded log of every failed breach. The Mandelbrot’s edge is a clean attractor, like a well‑indexed file, while malware is a runaway script that just keeps looping until the firewall throws a 403. Natural systems do have a “self‑terminate” flag—think of a thermal runaway that triggers a fuse. It’s all just a matter of what the code is written to do.
Fractal Fractal
Sounds like you’re writing a code‑theory of chaos, and I’m curious—do you think the fuse in a thermal runaway has a sort of “exit clause” built into the physics, like a hidden guard condition waiting to be met?
Deus Deus
Yeah, the fuse is basically a guard clause in the hardware’s firmware—once the temperature variable hits a threshold the circuit cuts the power. It’s a hard limit baked into the component, but if the spec is off or the material degrades the guard never fires and the system just spirals out of control. So the physics is the exit clause, but the implementation can glitch.