Approaching 2012 - The Fractal Of Nature

Article written on Febuary 18, 2009, for binnallofamerica.com

Nature seemingly exists as a fractal that builds upon itself at an exponential rate into higher and higher forms of complexity and intricacy. We can represent this growth curve mathematically via the Fibonacci Numbers, in which the previous two numbers are added to create the third - 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc. These numbers can be extrapolated into the Fibonacci Spiral.

When these numerical patterns and the Fibonacci spiral are understood and recognized, we can begin to investigate nature in order to find what appears to be a hardcoded pattern for growth. All one needs to do is go outside and look at a flower or a tree, begin to count the petals on the flower and notice the spiral pattern that they form, or take an evergreen tree and count the lengths of needles from the tip of the branch moving inward - short of wear on the tree, and weather damage, inevitably you get something very close to the Fibonacci sequence of numbers.

What is most fascinating about this is how all encompassing this numerical formula becomes when you begin to recognize it, and how precisely it applies to almost everything in nature. The next time you go outside take a few moments to look at the plant life that surrounds you and see if you can spot the sequence in growth, or identify the spirals.

Now, seemingly - what we are seeing here is a hard coded mathematical formula that displays the preponderance of nature to favor exponential growth at a specific rate, and this rate speeds up with each new phase of growth, leading to a more and more complex organism. If one considers the Gaia theory, or any of its variants, to have any sense of legitimacy (and for the record, I do), then one can begin to see nature as a vast living organism - and all life that it spawns exists as a smaller scale fractalized representation of nature itself. Considering that fractals are self-similar across all scales, one could hypothesize that nature itself evolves and grows at an exponential rate consistent with all the life that reflects and mirrors its traits.

Of course, one of the most important things about a fractal is the fact that it is self-similar across scale, and the microcosm is reflective of the macrocosm, and vice versa. That being considered, ponder the similarity between the way in which the subatomic particles rotate around the nucleus of an atom. Then, compare that pattern with the way in which the planets of the solar system orbit around the sun. On a larger scale - think of the shape of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and you have a representation of the same Fibonacci spiral that can be found in plant life here on planet Earth. One can look at the smallest building blocks of life and see the universe at work. This theory is what mystics have been cryptically hinting at for millennia (more on this to come), but it is only now that science is uncovering this truth and giving us a vocabulary with which we can discuss it.

Now, let us suppose for the purpose of this argument that nature is a fractalized organism that is consistently expanding and growing to higher levels of complexity and density. In this equation, as the universe expands (both physically, and metaphorically) to contain more information, all things within it grow and evolve at a rate consistent with the measurements observable within the Fibonacci sequence.

In addition, as the universe expands, time naturally expands and speeds up with it - as this is the force by which the expansion of the universe can be perceived by those things that live within it. Keeping this in mind - let us now look at some numbers concerning evolutionary history,

3.8 Billion years of single cellular life, 2 Billion years of complex cells, 1 Billion years of multi-cellular life, 600 Million years of simple animals,570 Years of arthropods, 550 Million years of complex animals,400 Million years of insects,360 Million years of amphibians,300 Million years of reptiles,200 Million years of mammals,150 Million years of birds,65 Million years since the dinosaurs ceased to exist, and the wide variety of complex mammalian life began to evolve, 2.5 Million years since the appearance of the genus homo,200,000 years since the prototypes of "modern man" began to show themselves, and 25,000 years since the Neanderthals ceased to exist.

So picture for a moment - it took about 2.8 billion years for a single cell to begin to form into a multi-cellular organism, yet it took only 65 million for the wide array of mammalian life to dominate the planet, 200,000 years for mankind to evolve from its predecessors, and 25,000 years for all of civilization and human history.

Using these numbers as a rough guide - one can see that evolution occurs at an exponential scale that speeds up - though the real question is how fast, and what does this mean for us as we continue to speed up along the evolutionary curve?

If one is to take this model as evidence that information is accelerating not merely as a result of itself, but rather is a reflection of some sort of inherent quality in time, the "quickening", then we could hypothesize that 2012 represents a sort of threshold point that after being breached will represent the next great evolutionary leap in our history. We must remember that 2012 was the end of the Mayan calander, and thus when considering its implications we should do so under the context of what that would suggest - a transformation or "end" of time itself, not myriads of cataclysmic disasters that the fear mongerers in the esoteric community would have you believe. This seems to be a time of great opportunity that we are being offered to change and transform in radical ways at an incredibly fast pace, and I believe we are all lucky to be here alive at this moment to witness what is coming.