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[MiserEnoch]

'ChaosHeavens', a mechanism that is engraved with an image of the artifact 'ChaosHeavens', each iteration getting smaller and smaller. It's gone fractal!!

[Emily]

Yeah this happens occasionally.

[Gearheart]

See also: Planepacked.

Has something like 75 images of itself engraved upon it's surface.

[Urist Imiknorris]

73. It's (the phenomenon, not Planepacked) entirely normal.

[ZhangC1459]

I'm guessing it's because they have a vision of the artifact as it will look when it's finished when they're possessed, and they engrave ever-smaller images of it on the image of it until it gets so small that they don't really have to bother anymore.

Dwarves have extremely capable minds.

[forsaken1111]

I think you meant recursive, not fractal.

[ZhangC1459]

I think you meant recursive, not fractal.

Either or.  Fractals are basically objects or patterns where if you look at one portion you wouldn't be able to tell if it was the whole thing or not.  i.e. Sierpinski triangle is like an infinite Triforce within Triforce within... etc. 

So if you stared at the image of the artifact on the artifact it'd be like looking at the artifact since the image would have the image on it and that image would have an even smaller one... etc etc.

[forsaken1111]

You are assuming that the image of the artifact has the image of the image of the artifact, etc.

[ZhangC1459]

You are assuming that the image of the artifact has the image of the image of the artifact, etc.

Well, all craftdwarfship is of the highest quality, so any image of the artifact would undoubtedly depict any images on said artifact.  Hence your infinite fractal.

[Passive Fist]

Then there are the artifacts that have an image of another artifact, which may be one of the recursive type. Dwarfs are crazy.

[ungulateman]

There's also two infinity's worth of kapoks decorating it.

[ZhangC1459]

... Dwarfs are crazy.

So of all the things you can do in DF, it's the fractal artifacts that make you think dwarves are crazy.

Never mind the magma falls, the atom smashers, the cog-and-axle turing-complete computers, or the colonizing of Hell itself... all those are fine, but man, those recursive artifacts! Where do they get such ideas?

[Trekkin]

The real question is why these artifacts are not of infinite value, since the image of the artifact, being worth something, also contains infinite smaller images of the artifact, which are presumably worth as much, and it continues off into infinity.

[LordSlowpoke]

There's also two infinity's worth of kapoks decorating it.

Actually, no. This is quite logical. There are two kapok trees decorating it. And the artifact itself is made from a lump of native aluminium which may be as well calculated to 15 milimeters.

[Urist Imiknorris]

You are assuming that the image of the artifact has the image of the image of the artifact, etc.

Well, all craftdwarfship is of the highest quality, so any image of the artifact would undoubtedly depict any images on said artifact.  Hence your infinite fractal.

What if it was an image of the other side of the artifacet? Like an image of the fromt depicted on the back?

And the artifact itself is made from a lump of native aluminium which may be as well calculated to 15 milimeters.

0.07 m³ (70 L). That's the volume of a boulder in DF.