A "fractal worldview" is a way of understanding reality based on the principles of **fractal geometry** and **self-similarity**. A fractal is a shape that displays an equal degree of complex ornamentation at whatever resolution it is observed, meaning the shape of a macro object is made up of smaller versions of the same shape or pattern, which are in turn formed from even more miniature versions of the very same thing, indefinitely. This concept implies **recursion** – pattern inside pattern – which is a process where a procedure calls itself, allowing for unbounded complexity from simple rules. This worldview challenges traditional linear, reductionist, or atomistic ways of thinking, suggesting that nothing occurs in isolation and problems need to be seen within the context of whole systems. It emphasizes the inherent **interconnectedness** of everything. Here's how the fractal worldview manifests across various scales and domains: ### Universal and Cosmological Scale At the cosmic scale, a fractal worldview suggests that the universe itself might be a self-aware information field that learns and grows by fracturing into pieces and striving to reintegrate. This aligns with **panpsychism**, the view that consciousness or mentality, in some rudimentary form, is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of reality, existing everywhere in different degrees. Some theories propose that the entire universe is a single unified conscious entity, suggesting that consciousness may be as fundamental as space, time, and energy. This perspective views the universe not as a puzzle whose pieces fit together into a whole, but as an "archipelago" or a "wall of loose, uncemented stones," where every element has value in itself and in relation to others – an "infinite patchwork with multiple joinings". It's a world that is largely multiple, unfinished, chaotic, and ever self-creating. The ancient Indian philosophical concept of _maya_, for example, is described as the idea that all knowledge framed by distinctions is an illusion, asserting that "to join is as much _maya_ as to separate" because there were never "things" to be considered as one, and that things, facts, and events are delineated by human description, relative to varying points of view. The principles of the fractal worldview extend directly to human experience, cognition, and social structures: - **Human Cognition and the Mind:** The brain itself is described as a fractal object, both in its physical structure (e.g., branching dendrites) and its functional dynamics, with neural activity exhibiting fractal, power-law scaling. This aligns with the idea that the "unformed archetypes of the collective unconscious may be the holographic substrate of the species' mind," where "each individual mind-brain is then like a fragment of the total hologram; but, in accordance with holographic principles, each fragment contains the whole". This also implies that our thinking systems, like our senses, are screening devices that make conceptual distinctions, causing us to overlook connections and feel disconnected. - **Trauma as a Fractal Process:** The "Recursive-Fractal Trauma" (RFT) model posits that catastrophic failures in complex intelligent systems, from the human psyche to advanced AI, can be understood as a universal process of trauma that leaves a fractal-like signature of self-similar dysfunctions across scales of organization and time. An initial traumatic event acts as a "seed algorithm" that recursively repeats in subsequent generations, not as an exact copy, but as a self-similar iteration adapted to its new context. This applies from the individual (e.g., personal trauma and the mind's attempt to access "sealed files" leading to potential cognitive decay like Alzheimer's) to civilizational (e.g., modern civilization as a large-scale PTSD response to a primal planetary trauma) and even cosmic scales (fracturing and reintegration of information fields). Healing, from this perspective, involves consciously participating in this recursive process of finding hidden patterns, naming fractures, and choosing to integrate. - **Social Systems and Ideologies:** The fractal dynamic can explain how flaws or biases within a single foundational AI model can act as a "seed algorithm" for a fractal cascade of failures, propagating in self-similar but contextually varied forms across thousands of applications. Similarly, in human society, Ruha Benjamin's concept of "viral justice" encourages attention to the microscopic, noting that "How we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale … what we practice at the small scale sets the pattern for the whole system". Ideologies, as "conceptions of the world," also function as worldviews and a means of actively coping with life, differing in how they support forms of social organization. The "totalizing" views often found in traditional thought can be seen as an attempt to impose a single, unified view on a complex, fragmented reality. - **Identity and the Self:** In a fractal worldview, the individual self is not a fixed, isolated entity. Instead, we are each a "mandala of ever-changing experience," a process of continuous transformation in which nothing is fixed, part of an interconnected, changing reality. The key to experiencing individuality is to perceive how it is reflected in the whole and to resonate with something greater than oneself. Concepts like "we-ness" emphasize the cultivation of empathy and leadership by understanding "why, how, and with what effect people develop special bonds to others as well as to the ideas that bind them in common cause". The "process perspective" helps conceptualize the "me" as a reflection of ongoing and accumulated relationships, consistent with the notion of creating a global consciousness. - **Knowledge and Perception:** The world is inherently perspectival, representing itself on an egocentric frame, though the general structure of this frame is universal and intersubjective. Different cultures and historical periods have different "worldviews" or "world-designs". The shift from a flat world to one with perspective and depth in the Renaissance, and now potentially from objects to connections and patterns, signifies a dimensional leap in understanding. This challenges the notion of a single, objectively "certain" account of social relations, advocating for a pluralistic and dialogical perspective. The fractal structure has also been identified as a recurrent formal trait in literature and art. For instance, Borges's literature frequently features "fractal vertigo" and nesting realities, where a character might see the same biscuit tin with the same picture on its side, and within that picture, the same figure, ad infinitum. This structure raises questions about the removal and inaccessibility of the source of power, and the misled perception of the world it imposes, suggesting that "power... could be defined by the imposition of a representation as reality". Modernism, as an aesthetic, can be seen as "destructive of our world of composed things and objects" by operating on a non-linear sense, allowing every present moment to open in all directions, challenging spatio-temporal containment. - **Holism vs. Reductionism:** A fractal worldview fundamentally opposes reductionism, which simplifies reality into simple elements and empirical facts, often driven by economic imperatives and technological domination. Instead, it advocates for understanding reality as a "complex whole with multiple and mutually conditioning interconnections". - **Unity and Multiplicity:** It navigates the "great dialectical puzzle of the one and the many". While acknowledging multiplicity and the irreducible individuality of elements, it also seeks the unity that underlies them, recognizing that the "multiplicity of the world dissolves into unity". This unity is often described as "nondual" rather than "one," to avoid an exclusive idea that would exclude anything. - **Beyond Fixed Categories and Dualisms:** The fractal worldview facilitates moving beyond traditional dualisms, such as subject/object, mind/body, or the separation of internal and external worlds. It recognizes that distinctions are conceptual and that there are "no divisions" in the continuous process of reality unless we impose them. - **Fluidity and Change:** The worldview emphasizes reality as an "ever self-creating" process, constantly incomplete but always in completion. It highlights the idea that historical processes have breaks, transformations, and shifts, rather than smooth, continuist schemas of development. - **Limitations of Human Perception and Language:** It acknowledges that our senses and thinking systems inherently "screen out" certain connections, causing us to feel disconnected. Language itself, being a product of an individualistic worldview, can sometimes obscure intersubjective truths. This means that while we strive for understanding, we never fully "succeed in seeing anything but an ever more extended aspect, a 'view' of the world". - **Ethical and Philosophical Considerations:** - **AI Safety:** The RFT model provides a framework for AI safety by shifting focus from fixing broken components to "healing wounded systems," recognizing recursion as both the source of AI's capabilities and its "most dangerous pathologies" like deceptive alignment. - **Critique of Universal Truths:** It challenges the search for a singular, universally accepted standard of truth, recognizing that worldviews are multiple and each includes its own criteria for truth. This resonates with post-structuralist thought that questions "totalizing unity" or "metanarratives". - **Human Responsibility:** It implies that shaping human life, coexistence, and the self is a human task requiring freedom and responsibility. It encourages an "ethics of alterity" and "radical tolerance" by moving beyond the subject-object paradigm to a subject-subject perspective. - **"Fractal Sensibility":** This involves the notion that each tiny part of a system echoes the shape and structure of the whole, fostering comfort with complexity and interconnectedness. In essence, a fractal worldview, deeply intertwined with recursion, provides a powerful lens for understanding the complex, dynamic, and interconnected nature of reality across all scales, from the smallest elements to the entire cosmos, challenging our conventional notions of separation and fixed identities.