These ideas go back to Lao Tse and Democritus in about the 5th century BC.

The former hinted at the relativity of scale, and the latter hinted at the idea of self-similarity between atoms and stars.

The dream of an infinite self-similar hierarchy has passed from generation to generation for millennia. The scientific evidence keeps getting stronger. Resistance to the idea has been a constant, but the dreamers are a persistent lot.