Replicated Fractal

Click for really big. The artist is pretty darn cool - check out Vlad, here. Here, you see the fractal nature of trees, and life in general. Life makes a copy of itself, buds it off, which does the same, and so on. Replicating fractals. Every so often, something happens to change the fractal pattern - a mutation - and a different fractal then replicates, until it too undergoes some change, for some reason (could be radiation, starvation, different atmosphere, etc), and this process is, in part, evolution. Life is a fractal chemical process consuming energy in order to replicate itself, generating waste products which in turn contribute to some other process. This of course is the real meaning of life, but, meh. Rather unfulfilling, right?

This fractal replication happens at all scales, from the micro to the macro. You could, in a sense, say it is our reality: Layers of replicated fractals. But that too, doesn't truly speak to our real reality: Layers of illusion generated by our minds.