22 April 2007 | Draft
Consciously Self-reflexive Global Initiatives
Renaissance zones, complex adaptive systems, and third order organizations
- / -
Introduction
Recursion and self-reflexivity
Dematerialization and virtualization
Progressive self-reflexive learning
Progressive integration of the shadow of non-self-reflexivity
Insightful "rebirth" and emergent thought structures
Imagination, constructivism, faith-based reality, revisionism
and "spin"
Form, geometry, pattern and dimensionality
Cybernetics of cybernetics: complex adaptive systems?
Indicative examples of 2nd and 3rd order environments
Conclusion: emergence of "post-systemic" forms of organization
of "higher order"?
Introduction
The case is frequently made for "new thinking" better adapted to the complex
of challenges foreseen for the 21st century -- and the decades immediately
to come. In the light of learning regarding the relative inadequacy of the
forms of organization and practice typically considered appropriate to thechallenge,
the question is how to explore the possibility of new forms of organization
-- whether of knowing or as embodied in collective initiatives.
The following sections consider different ways in which the mode or form of
"description" of an organizational system is itself progressively
brought into question from increasingly recursive or self-referential perspectives.
The cognitive assumptions associated with the "perspective"
metaphor may also be called into question with greater self-reflexivity, notably
in the light of the arguments of enactivism.
The sections on dematerialization and virtualization endeavour to highlight
the extent to which centre of gravity of modes of cognition and practice has
shifted away from the tangible and immediately concrete. Thereafter the sections
indicate various understandings of the spectrum of "higher" degrees
of subtlety, notably as encoded in form, geometry, pattern and dimensionality.
The insights of the cybernetics of cybernetics are then distinguished to highlight
the shift in current interest to complex adaptive systems. Resources on possible
examples of such self-reflexive adaptive initiatives are then presented. The
conclusion is used to present a table juxtaposing these various understandings
of organization of an increasingly higher order.
The implicit question throughout is how to distinguish and comprehend the
forms of genuinely self-reflexive global initiatives appropriate to the challenges
of the times -- and how to give organized form to such understanding. This
is an effort to challenge the dangerous assumption of simplicity made by many
with aspirations for responsibility in global governance. It is too readily
assumed that the complexity of policy control, and switching between programmes,
is of the same order as that of using a TV remote controller -- when many would
be challenged to programme a VCR, or to comprehend the manual provided.
Recursion and self-reflexivity
As an introduction to the sections that follow, Donald H. McNeil (What’s
Going on with the Toplogy of Recursion? S.E.E.D. Journal:
Semiotics, Evolution, Energy, and Development, 4, 1, 2004) provides a helpful
overview of the challenging confusions currently associated with various notions
of recursion -- and its central importance in the search for invariance. He introduces
his summary as follows:
The notion of “recursion” — by various definitions — goes
around and about in scholarly circles, but too often without the appreciation
which it deserves. Meanwhile, the quest for invariants lies at the core of
human pursuits generally.... Throughout, however, it will be assumed that
recursion proper involves at least one cyclical process which produces some
of its results by using or referring back to some of the previous results
of that same process, thus to evince a kind of “circular causality.” Along
the way it will be remarked that recursions are to be found at the core of
invariances and vice versa, the two together being prerequisites for selfness
as a whole. Moreover, it will become apparent that it is not primarily the
morphology but rather the topology of processes that serves best to enlighten
our appreciation of recursion and of the spin-offs therefrom.
He concludes:
The metaphor of the sphere which so dominates the Western Rational Tradition
is important, of course, but counts for nothing without an appreciation of
the tore. It is no accident that our reflective metaphors such as “grasp” and “comprehension” are
inherently toroidal. Moreover, circular logic is unavoidable, and the topology
of self-reference is, after all, that of recurrent processes. Even such progressions
as re-volution and e-volution turn upon themselves. Without goings around
there could be nothing going on. It is through the web of dynamic, recyclical
processes that our being emerges embodied as an eddy, persists as a relative
invariant, reflects upon itself, construes meaning, and eventually disperses.
That is what the topology of recursion is all about.
The associated notion of self-reference or
self-reflexivity was given a particular focus through the work of Douglas
Hofstadter (Gödel,
Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid: a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines
in the spirit of Lewis Carroll, Basic Books, 1979). Hilary Lawson
(Reflexivity: the post-modern predicament, 1986) has clarified the
dilemmas it implies for the future -- exemplified in its relevance for administration
(Ann L.Cunliffe and Jong
S. Jun, The
Need for Reflexivity in Public Administration, Administration & Society,
2005, 37: 225-242). In relation to complexity, an example of self-reference
situation is autopoiesis,
namely as the process of auto (self) creation that is presumably at the core
of any adaptive reorganization in response to the challenges of the times
(cf Bibliography
on Self-Reflexivity; James Juniper, A
Critique of Social Applications of Autopoiesis, International
Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences,
1, 3; Felix Geyer and Johannes van der Zouwen, eds., Sociocybernetics:
complexity, autopoiesis, and observation of social systems, Greenwood
Publishing, 2001)
Dematerialization and virtualization
As argued elsewhere (Reframing
Sustainable Sources of Energy for the Future: the vital role of psychosocial
variants, 2006), in the case of an economic perspective on the
future, the focus is typically on how the economic system is to be sustained,
notably through development. This is undergirded by a focus on the stability
of the financial system, primarily in its monetarized form. In considering the
monetary system, it is important to recognize that it
is based fundamentally on confidence and trust -- namely trust that monetary
tokens can be exchanged for goods and services later in time at an acceptable
rate. Not only is "energy" itself, in any form, essentially intangible,
but the forms through which it manifests may themselves be intangible. With
the increasing importance of the "service industry", economics has had
to come to terms with a process of "dematerialization" of the products with
which it is concerned. In 1999, half of Business Week’s one
hundred biggest global corporations in 1999 were in information and financial
services.
More broadly, dematerialization now refers to the absolute or relative reduction
in the quantity of materials required to serve economic functions (cf Iddo
K. Wernick et al. Materialization
and Dematerialization: measures and trends, Daedalus 125,
1996, 3). This may be expressed as reducing the total material that goes toward
providing benefits to customers -- accomplished through greater efficiency,
the use of better or more appropriate materials, or by creating a service that
produces the same benefit as a product (cf Dematerialization
and Immaterialization)
It could be argued that the evolution of organizations into more sophistoicated
or subtler forms is characterized
by a progressive dematerialization (or virtualization) of the distinct "vehicle" for
the identity that it engenders and "incubates". As such the process
of virtualization may be usefully be understood as a process of disidentification
-- well-understood metaphorically in the psychological disidentification of
a child from its parents. As a consequence, and as conventionally understood,
there is no active interface between the stages of such transformation, other
than that internalized within the individuals operating according to both logics.
Dematerialization has taken on a wider significance in relation to
electronic information. It may then be understood as a process to convert
assets and securities held in physical form into electronic form or to directly
allot securities in electronic record form. Ecological sustainability may
be assessed as the dematrialization of production and consumption (cf Peter
Bartelemus, Dematerialization
and Capital Maintenance: two sides of the sustainability coin, 2002).
An important potential avenue for achieving sustainability objectives is to
develop policies aimed at dematerialization of consumer preferences and consumption
patterns (cf Dematerialization,
habit formation and social interactions in consumer behaviour, 2005).
The widely-recognized emergence of a knowledge-based society, matched by an
increasing concern with faith-based structures and disciplines, also points
to the importance of dematerialization. This trend is better recognized
under the term "virtualization" as
discussed in exploring the case for "cognitive fusion" (Dematerialization
and Virtualization comparison of nuclear fusion and cognitive fusion,
Annex B of Enactivating
a Cognitive Fusion Reactor: Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing,
2006) under the following headings:
- Information system virtualization: This concept has been
intimately associated with the development of computer and information technology
over the past decades. In computing, virtualization is
the process of presenting a logical grouping or subset of computing resources,
whether hardware or software, so that they can be accessed in ways that give
benefits over the original configuration. Virtualization can therefore be understood
as an abstraction layer that allows multiple virtual machines, with heterogeneous
operating systems to run in isolation, side-by-side on the same physical machine.
It is widely promoted as the direction of development of computer-related processes,
notably knowledge-related applications.
- Artistic virtualization
- Economic virtualization: The internet is now understood
to be fundamentally reshaping businesses and the industries in which they
compete. A form of virtualization of the contemporary economy is now taking
place even though the basic rules of the "old" economy have regained
their currency, and the issues as business cycle, cost, quality, inventory,
productivity or traditional measures of profitability and economic value
are valid.
- Social virtualization: The challenge of progressive virtualization
of society was explored under the editorship of Magid Igbouria (Virtual
Societies: Their Prospects and Dilemma, The Information Society,
14(2), 1998). The concern goes beyond virtual classrooms, virtual universities,
virtual organizations, and even virtual communities. There is relatively
little awareness of how people can live and work in societies in which
these and other virtual practices and social forms are widespread and mixed
in with face-to-face relationships [more].
- Virtualization of reality: This phenomenon has been framed
in a variety of ways. Concern has been expressed at the psychological fallout
of the virtualization of reality through the death of affect. J.G. Ballard
has called this "the
greatest casualty of the twentieth century" -- a psychic numbness that
cultural commentators from Camus to McLuhan have argued is a salient characteristic
of our media-bombarded, hyperstimulated culture. It is distinguished by the
disengagement from immediate experience, a cauterization of the soul. [more]
- Virtualization of identity: The implications of cyberspace
for identity have long been explored. More intriguing is the sense in which
identity may be as much a metaphor as anything more identifiable, as noted
by Kenneth Boulding (Ecodynamics; a new theory of social evolution,
1978)
- Our consciousness of the unity of self in the middle of a vast complexity
of images or material structures is at least a suitable metaphor for the
unity of group, organization, department, discipline or science. If personification
is a metaphor, let us not despise metaphors -- we might be one ourselves.
- Virtualization of organization: This is an organization
existing as a corporate, not-for-profit, educational, or otherwise productive
entity that does not have a central geographical location and exists solely
through telecommunication tools.
Scott M. Preston (Virtual
Organization as Process: Integrating Cognitive and Social Structure Across
Time and Space, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication)
argues that:
- Virtual organization requires a different way of perceiving the world
by those who wish to participate in it. There are four key characteristics
of virtual organization as process. First, virtual organization entails
the development of relationships with a broad range of potential partners,
each having a particular competency that complements the others. Second,
virtual organizing capitalizes on the mobility and responsiveness of
telecommunications to overcome problems of distance. Third, timing
is a key aspect of relationships, with actors using responsiveness
and availability to decide between alternatives. Last, there must be
trust between actors separated in space for virtual organization to
be effective. This paper describes the perceptual and social requirements
of virtual organization and suggests a research plan for explicating
the structure, process and content of any system based on its elements.
The structures of individual actors’ perceptions and expectations
and the social processes that supply the content of their social experience
must be addressed if virtual organization and its advantages are to
be understood
- Virtualization of community: The "organizational" variant
overlaps with a virtualization of community, possibly extendingto "virtual
nations" (cf Howard Rheingold, The
Virtual Community, 1999).
- Virtualization of psychosocial activity: The increasing
extent to which many now live significant portions of their day in virtual
worlds has been a topic of repeated comment. This may take the form of:
- e-shopping and e-consumption
- e-gambling, including variants using virtual funds
- e-gaming, notably to the point of engaging individuals for many hours
per day
- e-socializing, notably through chat rooms and including e-dating
- Virtualization of social constructs: As the above items
indicate, within the emerging psychosocial environment of the 21st century
many elements of "reality" may be as real, if not more real, in
a virtual sense than in a more tangible sense. This applies to different
degrees to each of the following:
- money: it is only economic threat, and the increasing purchase of gold,
that provides a striking reminder of the intangible nature of money and
its primary existence as a virtual entity (cf Peter Koenig, 30
Lies About Money, 2003)
- institutions: as noted with respect to organizations, duly constituted
institutions may be understood as existing as virtual entitites to a
higher degree than as tangible entitites (irrespective of office buildings
and factories)
- plans, programmes, schedules: as patterns of intent, their "existence" as
coherent entitites is a matter of interpretation and an expression of
shared confidence. The problematic nature of the existence of such entities
is evident with respect to vanishing pension plans and strategic plans
that are continually rolled over without producing what is promised.
- contracts: the "existence" of many entities is seemingly
ensured through legally binding contracts but such texts merely provide
a pattern for actions which may or may not conform to them
- meetings: face-to-face gatherings may be understood as somewhat chaotic
assemblages of people for which varuing degrees of order and coyherence
can be claimed. But, as with virtual meetings, the degree to which the
various face-to-face interactions constitute an identifiable and coherent
whole is debateable.
- threats: in a society subject to skillful warnings regarding threat
(such as "weapons of mass destruction") the reality of such
threats is increasingly questionable
- values
The extent to which a social construct is "real" or "virtual" might
lend itself to a social application of Heisenberg's Uncertainty
Principle in quantum mechanics (cf Shay David, On
the Uncertainty Principle and Social Constructivism: the case of Free and Open-Source
Software, 2003; Garrison Sposito, Does a generalized Heisenberg
Principle operate in the social sciences? Inquiry, 1969),
The challenge of self-referential reflexivity is
understood as a methodological issue in the social sciences analogous to
that principle. However the principle is frequently, but incorrectly,
confused with the "observer effect" since
it associates precision in measurements related to changes in velocity and
position of certain particles relative to the perspective the observer takes
on them.
- Virtualization and image: The extent to which "reality" is
now treated as "plastic", to be moulded by through image management
and public relations, is now widely recognized. Social entities, whether
individuals, corporate bodies, programs, products or policies, all lend themselves
to being repackaged independently of their facticity. The media have a central
role in the process of image formation and sustainability. Psychosocial entities
may usefully be understood as constructs -- memes -- travelling along the
many currents of public opinion.
Progressive self-reflexive learning
UNESCO, notably throught the International Commission of Education for the Twenty-first Century, gave prominence to the notion of a "learning society" and subsequently to the "connected learning society". This had followed a much earlier report to the Club of Rome (James W Botkin, Mahdi Elmandjra, Mircea Malitza. No Limits to Learning; bridging the human gap. Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1979; Societal Learning and the Erosion of Collective Memory: a critique of the Club of Rome Report: No Limits to Learning, 1980). Botkin subsequently raised the question whether the Club itself was a learning organization (Jim Botkin, The Club of Rome: a learning organization? 1996). In relation to the previous section, the 1979 report identified of the important caracteristics of the knowledge society as being : the immaterialization of the material and the materialization of the immaterial..
Framed in this way, self-reflexiveness of an increasingly subtler nature results
from a progression such as the following:
- learning facts
- learning information about facts
- learning from experience regarding facts and information
- learning the appropriateness of various philosophical perspectives
- learning to learn
This progression through learning stages can be explored in various ways, including the many highlighted elsewhere (Varieties
of Rebirth: distinguishing ways of being "born again", 2004) and discussed below, especially from a cognitive perspective. In particular, tThis progression may be explored in the light of the development of critical
thinking.
Of particular interest in any such progression, as pointed out
by Donald Michael (On
Learning to Plan and Planning to Learn,
1973; The Unprepared Society: Planning for a Precarious
Future, 1969), is
the "
requirement to embrace error":
More bluntly, future-responsive societal learning makes it necessary for
individuals and organizations to embrace error. It is the only way to ensure
a shared self-consciousness about limited theory on the nature of social
dynamics, about limited data for testing theory, and hence about our limited
ability to control our situation well enough to be successful more often
than not
Also of interest is the process of learning under uncertainty (R L Flood.
Rethinking the fifth discipline: learning within the unknowable. Routledge,
London, 1999)
Progressive integration of the shadow of non-self-reflexivity
The successive phases in the evolution of insight
are frequently depicted in Zen Buddhism by a traditional sequence of 10 ox-herding
pictures, each with a brief commentary (cf D T Suzuki; Kubota Ji'un, Ten
Ox-herding Pictures with the Verses Composed by Kakuan Zenji, 1996).
As argued elsewhere (Enlightening
Endarkenment: selected web resources on the challenge to comprehension, 2005), these are of special interest because of
their indication of a person's progressive discovery and interplay with a shadowy
element denoted by an ox. In a Commentary
on the Integration of perceived Problems in
the Human Development section of the Encyclopedia
of World Problems and Human Potential, the following attempt was made
to suggest how that classical sequence might be interpreted for clues to an
unfolding relationship between humanity and its shadow (in the shape of the
complex of world problems).
The phases in the sequence, here to be reinterpreted in terms of their self-reflexive
implications, are:
- (a) Undisciplined exploration of the problematique: Humanity,
having violated its own inmost nature, loses track of the problematique and
its significance. It is then led astray by the delusions to which it succumbs,
such as desire for gain and fear of loss, and is confused by a multiplicity
of views of right and wrong, appropriateness and inappropriateness. Although
distracted by this confusion, and exhausted by its efforts, humanity continues
its search for a sustainable solution. At this time, it would appear that
humanity, as represented by the international community, continues to be embroiled
in the pre-systemic, single-factor perspectives of this first phase (ozone,
acid rain, "health-for-all", substance abuse, illiteracy, terrorism, AIDS).
- (b) Recognizing traces of the problematique as an integrated system: Repeated
(and basically unsuccessful) attempts to locate and contain the problematique
through uncoordinated initiatives provide humanity with occasional insights
into its nature, especially when more integrated approaches are used. Although
recognizing that the problematique, by whatever means, is in some sense engendered
by humanity as a whole, there remains a basic confusion between truth and falsehood,
especially when it seems obvious to some that another particular group can
be usefully blamed for specific problems. Environmental and systems insights
(tropical forests, global warming) are shifting the focus to this second phase.
- (c) Focusing on the problematique as a whole: Having cultivated
a more intuitive insight, enabling it to integrate its complementary modes
of perception, humanity focuses directly on the problematique, recognizing
its many manifestations as consequences of different forms of inappropriate
human intervention. There are episodic exercises in focusing on the problematique
as a whole (Brandt Report, Brundtland Report), although what they fail to take
into account quickly condemns them as sub-systemic and inappropriate and encourages
further initiatives of a similar nature.
- (d) Encompassing the problematique: Humanity grapples with
the problematique directly for the first time. The momentum of the problematique,
developed over the long periods during which it was uncontained, and the pressures
and habitual opportunities of an undisciplined social environment, make it
extremely difficult to control. Severe disciplinary measures are necessary. The
various development strategies, especially the current attempt at "sustainable
development", correspond to this fourth phase, but only to the extent that
efforts are made to implement them. On the national level, the structural adjustment
required by the IMF is indicative of the political will required -- although
typically such adjustment fails to take into account many facets of the problematique.
- (e) Orienting the problematique: Every insight concerning
the problematique leads humanity to further insights in an endless pattern.
With discernment these will all be of value. But when humanity deceives itself,
confusion will prevail and the problematique will reassert itself in an inappropriate
manner. Constant vigilance is required to discipline the problematique and
orient its manifestations within appropriate bounds. The seeds of this
fifth phase may be seen in the increasing recognition of the need for a disciplined
and radical change of life style, especially on the part of the industrialized
countries.
- (f) Using the problematique as a vehicle for sustainable development: The
struggle of humanity with the problematique is over. Humanity is no longer
traumatized by gain or loss, which are assimilated as phases in a larger process
that is now the focus of attention. Rhythms of action in harmony with nature
are cultivated. The problematique is used as a vehicle moving in sympathy with
those rhythms towards the re-enchantment of the Earth. The old modes of action
are not considered viable and their advocates are no longer heeded. Some
indications of the nature of this phase are to be found in the writings of
the "deep ecology" movement and in the preoccupations of some forms of sustainable
agriculture -- although their obvious limitations lie in their inability to
deal realistically with the conditions of industrialized, urban societies and
the impoverishment of an overpopulated planet. The missing insight would seem
to be how to achieve the transition to this stage by benefiting from the problematique
itself.
- (g) Transcending the realm of the problematique: Having used
the problematique as a vehicle to reach a sustainable condition, it is no longer
required. However, the necessary disciplines for humanity to handle it remain
available. Humanity can now act with serenity guided by insight that is no
longer obscured by the dynamics of the problematique. There are writings on
paradigm shifts into a new consciousness (in which the problematique no longer
figures) and these do offer clues as to the nature of this phase. However,
their neglect of the problematique would seem to be more a question of avoidance
rather than transcendence, indicating that such perspectives lack vital insights.
- (h) Disappearance of both humanity and the problematique: The
dualistic mindset through which humanity is perceived, in opposition to the
problematique and to other species, is itself transcended, as are the disciplines
through which that relationship is articulated. Confusion disappears. But
there is no question of being either entranced by more integrative insights
or entrapped by lesser ones. The nature of this condition does not lend itself
to definition. Typically, any desire for it renders it unattainable or unsustainable.
- (i) Expression of essential humanity: Grounded in its
essential nature, humanity stands untouched by inappropriateness. Processes
of integration and disintegration are witnessed from a perspective that enfolds
them. Neither formulation nor reformulation are necessary to ensure sustainability.
Change, as perceived, is necessarily appropriate however paradoxical it may
appear.
- (j) Human intervention in the world: Human action is no
longer associated with any particular mindset, nor does it follow any recognizable
path. It cannot be assessed by any form of conventional wisdom, nor does
it depend on any particular tools. No special effort is made to preserve
forms of any kind -- including those of humanity itself. Insight into the
emptiness underlying form enfolds any form of action in a more meaningful
context, thus enabling greater appropriateness to emerge as required.
Insightful "rebirth" and emergent thought structures
Progressive evolution of recursive self-reflexiveness may also be framed in
terms of some form of "rebirth". This has been explored elsewhere (Varieties
of Rebirth: distinguishing ways of being "born again", 2004;
Web Resources
on Being "Born Again", 2004). The following clusters of ways were
described.
| G.
Experiential rebirth (operacy, flow, emdiment of mind, speaking
with God, born-again, possession, psychedelic experience, embodiment in
song, spiritual rebirth) |
F.
Cognitive perspective (metacognition, critical thinking, philosophy,
aesthetic sensibility, orders of thinking, systematics, orders of abstraction,
disciplines of action) |
| E.
Therapeutical rebirth (release from trauma, mentors, self-help,
discipleship) |
D.
Developmental rebirth (education, perspective, initiation, cultural
creativity, individuation) |
| C.
Psycho-behavioural rebirth (sin-to-virtue, changing patterns of
consumption, conversion) |
B.
Socio-religious rebirth (birthright, destiny, reincarnation, socal
status, ceremony, ritual, group affiliation, games, sports) |
|
The nine levels of emergent thought structure distinguished in Spiral
Dynamics, described as vMemes, might be understood in terms of degrees
of self-reflexiveness and recursion.
Imagination, constructivism, faith-based reality, revisionism and "spin"
There has recently been official recognition of the "failure of imagination"
by the international community in relation both to "terrorism" (Failure
of imagination to deal with an alternative logic, 2005) and to many
other challenges calling for new thinking and a "paradigm shift" (cf Documents
relating to Paradigm Change, Social Transformation). The question
is whether there is a more fundamental failure of imagination in relation to
the emergence of insight -- and its expression through forms appropriate to
the challenges of the 21st century.
As concluded elsewhere (Enactivating
a Cognitive Fusion Reactor: Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing,
2006), like it or not, governance in the 21st century will be significantly
influenced by the imagination -- whether as manipulated by news management
and media phenomena, by the faith-based articulations of different belief
systems, or by the search for imaginative relief from the constraints of
simplistic governance, insensitive planning and the incompatible preferences
of others. "Urban
myths", notably
regarding "immigrants" and minority groups, may have increasing influence on
social unrest and remedial policies. Imagination will be called upon, through
self-reflexive processes, to reframe depression, anxiety and existential doubt.
Relief will be increasingly sought in alternative realities, whether private
(including drug-enabled), virtual or elective communities, in which primacy
is given to imaginative connectivity to provide coherence.
Imagination is a vital quality sought and cultivated, notably by politicians,
in envisaging viable future possibilities -- beyond the tired formulas of "business
as usual" and "more of the same".
There is now recognition of a vital distinction
made between "faith-based" and "reality-based" decision-making at the highest
level, as noted in a much-cited article by Ron Suskind (Without
a Doubt, The New York Times, In The Magazine, 17 October
2004) regarding an exchange with an aide in the decision-making circle of President
Bush:
The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based
community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge
from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured
something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's
not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire
now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying
that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other
new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out.
We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study
what we do.''
The challenge of imagination in relation to self-rfeflexivity might be framed
in terms of how much "spin" makes for what degree of recursive self-reflexiveness
-- provided their is awareness of the degree of spin, namely of the degree
of disconnectivity from unspun reality.
As in the 1960s, it is once again a case of "l'imagination
au pouvoir". Just
as each of the above may be understood as an exercise in imposing and eliciting
particular imaginative strategies, so individuals are now free to dissociate
themselves from such "stories" and develop their own (cf Imaginal
Education: game playing, science fiction, language, art and world-making,
2003).
Form, geometry, pattern and dimensionality
The pattern or form
through which insight is organized and expressed implicitly constrains or reinforces
certain modes of understanding. Various authors have explored the extent of
this influence in different ways.
Form/Medium: As discussed elsewhere (Psychosocial
Work Cycle: beyond the plane of Möbius,
2007), the
focus of Michael Schiltz (Form
and Medium: a mathematical reconstruction, Image [&] Narrative,
6, 2003) follows from that of the calculus of indications of George
Spencer-Brown (Laws of Form, 1969/1994). Schiltz notes that
form/medium is "the image for systemic connectivity and concatenation",
as described by Humberto
Maturana and Francesco
Varela. For Schiltz, the notion of "space" is the key to
reflexivity appropriate to any discussion of form and medium, citing Spencer-Brown
as follows:
In all mathematics it becomes apparent, at some stage, that we have for
some time been following a rule without being aware of it. This might be
described as the use of a covert convention. [… Its] use
can be considered as the presence of an arrangement in the absence of an
agreement. For example, in the statement and theorem.... it is arranged (although
not agreed) that we shall write on a plane surface. If we write on
the surface of a torus the theorem is not true […] The fact
that men have for centuries used a plane surface for writing means that,
at this point in the text, both author and reader are ready to be conned
into the assumption of a plane writing surface without question. But, like
any other assumption, it is not unquestionable, and the fact that we can
question it here means that we can question it elsewhere.
Schiltz then comments, regarding covert conventions:
It was our choice to write in a plane surface that has made that distinctions
indeed do cut off an inside from an outside, that ‘differences do make
a difference’ (Gregory
Bateson). Covert conventions at a level deeper than the level of form,
preceding the level of form, have determined what the form would do. There
lies a chance for developing a medium theory here. In this concrete case:
the medium of the plane surface makes the difference. And in general: the
topology of the medium makes the difference between distinctions making a
difference and distinctions not making a difference. “It is now evident
that if a different surface is used, what is written on it, although identical
in marking may be not identical in meaning"... Spencer-Brown has shown us
that the ‘medium is the message’ (Marshall
MacLuhan).....
The inadequacy of conventional frameworks to subtler insight is usefully highlighted
by Ken Wilber (On
the Nature of a Post-Metaphysical Spirituality: response to Habermas and Weis,
Consumercide)
in relation his AQAL framework:
Trying to fit the transpersonal in an abstract and theoretical framework
is a hopeless enterprise, all mystics have said the spiritual cannot adequately
be formulated. Yes, and all of traditions of the mystics have nonetheless
offered general maps of the journey to Spirit (such as the ten Zen Ox-Herding
pictures). It turns out that there are family resemblances to these maps,
and these resemblances seem to reflect certain deep potentials in the human
bodymind (deep potentials for self-transcendence given as the Great Nest).
We don't try to fit anything into an abstract and theoretical framework.
Instead, we attempt a reconstructive science that concludes, based on empirical
and phenomenological research and evidence, that there are higher states
and stages available to men and women (but again, not in a predetermined
fashion, since their manifestation is molded by all four quadrants -- behavioral,
intentional, social, and cultural). This is a much fuller approach than Weis
offers, I believe.
Geometry: For some the focus is on geometry, as with:
- John Allen. Succeed: structuring managerial thought (Tucson, Synergetic
Press, 1988)
- Arthur Young. Geometry
of Meaning (Boston, Delacort Press/Seymour Lawrence,
1978)
- R Buckminster
Fuller. Synergetics: explorations in
the geometry of thinking (New York, Macmillan, 1975 (vol. I), 1979 (vol. II))
Fuller focused on the role of the set of polyhedra in modelling cognitive
systems of different complexity. The cognitive and organization implications
of his exploration of tensegrity are discussed elsewhere (From
Networking to Tensegrity Organization, 1984; Implementing
Principles by Balancing Configurations of Functions: a tensegrity organization
approach, 1979; Groupware
Configurations of Challenge and Harmony: an alternative approach to alternative
organization, 1979; Tensing
Associative Networks to contain the Fragmentation and Erosion of Collective
Memory, 1980). A variety of tensegrity structures can be displayed
in virtual reality over the web (cf Bob Burkhardt, VRML
Tensegrity Models, 2006).
Fuller's work was subsequently
a basis for the work of |
