And finally, there is the question of the origin of fractals, which has raised a new fashion by this aesthetic aspect. After I began writing about using the 'monsters' of 1900 vintage - all kinds of discoveries made around 1900 for the purposes of either being mathematical pathologies or perhaps exotic observations in economics - when I had described the use of these structures to create shapes that are beautiful, readers of my books started writing that I was completely wrong in believing that these shapes originated in 1900. One form, which I called the Sierpinski triangle, Sierpinski gasket, which is made of several parts identical to itself, turns out to be very common in decoration in Italian churches, either on the pavement or in paintings, on the roof and on the ceiling. Other structures were found in Persian art or in Indian art of different periods, and very surprising to me, very moving for me, a loop seems to be established between structures that first were identified for the purposes of mere decoration; then much later, probably unconsciously, they were introduced by mathematicians for the purposes of, again, pathology. Again, much later, they were used by me for the purpose of science. Then unwittingly, as a free bonus, for the purpose of creating beauty; that a loop is from decoration to decoration, from beauty to beauty via mathematics and physics, which I think, if confirmed would be a very strong element of unity between different human enterprises.
