I wanted to be vague to begin with, and your questions were semi-expected so allow me to explain further. Engineers need inspiration from sources beyond other engineers - such restraint inhibits true innovation and creates a need for platforms of collaboration; this forum was my best bet.
To continue: The second layer of pads, as mentioned, would be "...a grid of electric transmitters, connected to a computer..." The fluid itself isn't a grid of particles, naturally, but the computer would recognize the fluid as a matrix through the grids. The grids would consist of very fine electromagnets, which would alter fluid motion with outflux, and register the results by back-fed influx.
Mandelbrot is an example of an infinite fractal. From the web, "The boundary area of the set is infinitely complex, therefore fractal, because it is possible to bring out finer and finer detail. Computer graphics artists call the process of unfolding the detail 'zooming in' on the set's boundary or 'magnifying' it." The point being, matrices can be 3D and not just 3D, by "inverting" numbers to other ones or other symbols with infinite combinations.
So essentially, to avoid heating problems, the fluid is simply not overused, and the same effect is achieved. The result is a very complex calculation, completed in a fraction of a second... instead of using a primitive processor to handle the entire matrix. The fractal comes into play not with the hardware but the software. As described, finite math can be contorted into infinite complexity. I was merely suggesting that software could record the fluid dynamics on many levels of intricacy, such as a "moving matrix," where the numbers, be it 0's and 1's or any other symbols, could represent many physical principles. Two equations' end matrices could then be ran against each other at once, producing a new matrix of enhanced complexity for experimental purposes or computational ones.
Nevermind the software elements - those were just side-notes. The idea is that people truly must begin examining alternative hardwares which can evolve humanity technologically. I have the eerie feeling that convention and tradition are almost slipping us backwards technologically, and we must move beyond the usual 2/4-digit processing methods, where severe heating occurs because you're using electricity instead of fluid to do the processing. To simulate such advanced movement using a linear processor alone is silly, and the hardware I've described could be used to process anything, from video games, to simulations, and could help run any application such as operating systems, etc.
Let's be a bit more clever with our designs; I'm a product designer doing corporate licensing, so I don't have time to be an engineer. But please realize that some of the smartest people on Earth are not engineers, while some of them are - and they need a platform to collaborate if only as a source of inspiration and food for thought. There is no such forum in existence so this should be sufficient enough.
