Who needs memory?

David Shechtman
Latest Nobel Laureate
for chemistry
discovered quasi-crystals
back in '82.

So everybody laughed.
(Not I, did you?)

First came the fractals
endlessly repeating
their own forms
on every scale;
now quasi-crystals,
exactly the reverse,
in non-repeating
patterns to infinity.

So they forced him
to resign. "No such
thing," they said
"as quasi-crystals -
only quasi scientists."

They knew - as did
we all - that matter,
all of solid matter
for that matter,
is composed
of crystals packed
in regular arrays.

Not so for quasi
crystals. Each stage
makes a transition
to the next, creates
the pattern
next in line.
The past
is meaningless.
It's strictly no repeats.
The process is
completely memoryless.

I and Quasi-crystals
have that much
in common.

Let me repeat...
except I can't, I too
am (almost)
sans recall! But I
shall sing it
from the rooftops.

Man achieves
what nature
pioneers... in
Medieval Mosques
mosaics have
this self same form.

Beauty can blossom
without memory!
Yipeeeeee!
There's hope for me!

The upper image is of some aperiodic (or quasi-) crystals. The lower one is of mosaic tiles laid to an aperiodic pattern.