Benoit Mandelbrot: Fractals and the art of roughness.

Fractals, like the Powers of Ten, is a concept seemingly unrelated to urban design and city planning. However, understanding natural patterns and pattern recognition is a critical city planning skill. Knowing about fractals helps. The more you know, the more you know.

“At TED2010, mathematics legend Benoit Mandelbrot develops a theme he first discussed at TED in 1984 — the extreme complexity of roughness, and the way that fractal math can find order within patterns that seem unknowably complicated. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.