odditycollector: Woman staring through a window of a space shuttle. The curve of the Earth fills her view, bright and blue. (Perspective)
odditycollector ([personal profile] odditycollector) wrote2010-02-02 03:07 pm

African Fractals, in buildings and braids

This is a brief introduction to an aspect of history I've never been made aware of, concepts I've only seen as science fiction. Things like social fractals, and ancient pseudo-random number generators, and computers made of sand.

"Every digital circuit in the world started in Africa. I know Brian Eno says there's not enough Africa in computers, but I don't think there's enough African history in Brian Eno."



(It's especially blowing my mind at the moment because I've been pondering on and off an alien society based pretty strongly in something like fractals. I thought I was starting from scratch.)

[identity profile] odditycollector.livejournal.com 2010-02-03 07:00 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I remember a couple places where I was like "...Really, dude?" (I mean, he sounded almost embarrassed about the inducted-into-the-secret-society rituals, although I don't think it pinged he shouldn't have been talking about them at all.) But goddam where is the steampunk AU tech-punk based from Africa. MAYBE IT EXISTS.