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This early engine generates
a fractal tree using recursion and the Flash MX Drawing API.
A mutation factor adds subtle changes to the rate of decay of each branching iteration,
thus making each sub-tree unique. The mutation rate has been toned down in this version,
as early experiments that involved tinkering with the "genes" controlling the mutation factor
resulted in occasional disaster: excessive mutations would cause
sub-trees to grow out of control instead of decaying, and the system would go down.
Though the probability of such occurring has been greatly reduced, it will still happen
on occasion. Flash MX should warn you if this happens, and you can simply abort the script
to view how much of the fractal has been generated.
Might this not be a warning to geneticists who tinker with the very code that determines how
living systems will grow and evolve? Though things may seem simple at lower levels, during subsequent iterations,
unforseen events may result.
After all, complex life forms and systems are essentially fractals:
using "simple" instructions, one cell divides into two, and with subsequent iterations, complexity arises.
If Stephen Wolfram's theory is right, even all of existence may have been generated using
simple instructions that have been reiterated ad infinitum.
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