31st May 2006 | Draft
Enactivating a Cognitive Fusion Reactor
Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing (ITER-8)
- / -
Summary
Background
EXPERIMENTAL CHALLENGES
-- Experimental challenge of fusion for ITER
-- Experimental challenge of "cognitive fusion" for ITER-8
COMPLEMENTARITY AND SELF-REFLEXIVITY (Annex A)
-- Complementarity between ITER-8 and the ITER fusion project
-- ITER-8 self-reflexive design
-- Torus dynamics common to ITER and ITER-8
DEMATERIALIZATION AND VIRTUALIZATION (Annex B)
-- Dematerialization | Virtualization | Correspondence between the virtual reality of ITER and ITER-8
-- Complementary fusion metaphors: "plasma dynamics" and "attention dynamics"
-- Towards a language appropriate to dynamic engagement
---- Form and dimensionality | Embodiment | Didjeridu playing
-- 3-fold Complementarity (nuclear fusion, didjeridu, cognitive fusion)
-- Helical threading of "incommensurables"
---- Snake metaphor | Incommensurable rings and the challenge of cognitive fusion
---- Cognitive "traffic" around a
"hole" | Spiral dynamics
---- Supercoiling and field effects in cognitive organization (of knowledge)
---- Simulation possibilities
COACTIVE CONTEXTUAL RELATIONSHIPS (Annex C)
-- ITER-8: a necessarily underdefined entity
-- Resonant associations to other "ITER" projects
-- People | Institutions | Technologies
COGNITIVE FUSION THROUGH MYTH AND SYMBOL MAKING (Annex D)
-- Myth and indigenous knowledge
-- Archetypal symbolism indicative of the fundamental dimensions of ITER-8
CONCLUSION
References
Summary
Virtually unprecedented research resources are about to be committed to the
construction of an experimental nuclear fusion reactor by
an intergovernmental coalition of countries -- with significant funding via
the European Union. It constitutes a major research and technological
challenge designed to benefit from national experiments over the past 30 years.
It is hoped to be a key step in the resolution of the foreseeable energy challenges
of the planet.
The initiative described here is complementary to this project and quite
distinct, although it is designed to benefit symbiotically from the creative
challenges and breakthroughs in research on controlled nuclear fusion. It is
focused on the challenge of engendering psychocultural energy, notably as a response to the increasing popular apathy with regard to major social projects such as the European Union. The initiative is seen
as vital to sustaining the creativity, excitement, collective purpose and fun
without which unlimited supplies of conventional energy are effectively meaningless
to any higher quality of life. The initiative involves the enactivation of
a "cognitive fusion reactor" through which individual and collective
energy can be engendered. It is a coherent act of will, creativity and imagination
designed to serve as an attractor for those who can engage in its processes
or benefit therefrom. It builds on the integrative approaches developed over
30 years through the experimental online databases of the Encyclopedia
of World Problems and Human Potential --
most recently with extensive funding from the European Union.
The following outline first clarifies the challenges of controlled nuclear
fusion in contrast with those of controlled cognitive fusion. Their complementarity
is then highlighted notably with respect to the toroidal dynamics considered
as essential to the stability of both their respective processes -- especially
to the degree that they mirror each other. The challenges of nuclear fusion
are reviewed as a template of requisite variety by which the challenges of
cognitive fusion can be modelled. The unconventional nature of the cognitive
fusion initiative is then clarified as a higher dimensional construct -- considered
as fundamental to psychosocial processes of the 21st century. The nature of
the conformal, coactive "non-relationship" to
other projects, institutions and people is then briefly noted.
Background
The ITER-8 initiative described here is inspired by the allocation of resources
to the design and experimental development of ITER. Conceived at an international
summit in 1985, it was originally named the International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (also known as the International
Thermonuclear Energy Reactor) -- as a way of harnessing nuclear
fusion as a peaceful power source. It has since taken the form of
a Joint
Undertaking under
the Euratom Treaty (the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy
Community) and has been given the name ITER International Fusion Energy
Organisation (IIFEO). The experimental tokamak fusion reactor is to be
constructed at Cadarache (France) with the ITER headquarters located
in Barcelona (Spain). Participating countries include: China, India, Japan,
Russia, South Korea, the USA-- and the counties of the European
Union,
ITER: The ITER initiative is significant in that it represents one of the
world's major research hopes for new sources of energy at a time when the probability
of energy shortage is becoming increasingly evident. As a potentially safe,
environmentally friendly and economically competitive energy source fusion
has the potential to provide practically inexhaustible energy with greatly
reduced levels of radioactive waste compared with fission. It is also significant
because of the fundamental nature of the research required to render it viable.
Such factors have justified the allocation of unprecedented research funds
(only exceeded by the funding of the International Space Station). It is thereby
hoped to ensure "business as usual" for the foreseeable future. The
construction cost between 2006 and 2013 is expected to be up to $12 billion
(10-billion-euro). If ITER is successful, a demonstration fusion power plant
would be built in the mid-2030s, with the prospect of the first commercial
fusion plant being created mid-century to assess economic feasibility.
ITER-8: In the spirit of complementarity basic to fundamental physics, the
ITER-8 initiative outlined here is framed as a complementary approach to ITER.
It seeks to benefit from every cognitive and design advance made in the construction
and operation of ITER as the best of what humanity is capable in the sustainable
generation and management of energy. These are understood for ITER-8 as cognitive
patterns that may be of relevance as design metaphors in its elaboration of
a cognitive fusion reactor and in the sustainable management of the psychosocial
energies that would be thereby engendered.
In contrast to the needs for the kinds of energy available from nuclear fusion (or nuclear fission and other familiar energy sources), the following initiative
relates to the fundamental need of society and individuals for another form
of energy. This may be variously described as the "energy" associated
with imagination, creativity, hope, fun and a sense of coherent, collective
purpose -- even "the political will to change" (cf Reframing Sustainable Sources of Energy for the Future: the vital role of psychosocial variants, 2005) . This "energy" is
to be contrasted with the psychosocial apathy and despair which is increasingly
widespread and undermines the coherence of any other initiatives -- whether
or not they benefit from the "unlimited" energy
that ITER may help to provide.
What follows is the outline design of the "cognitive fusion reactor" named
here as "ITER-8".
This acronym stands for: Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing -- Alternation
Technology Enactivation. The figure 8 is appended as a reminder of:
- the
configuration of precepts traditionally advocated to engender psychosocial
energy sustainably (and in contrast with that used by ITER in defining the
requisite temperature for nuclear fusion, namely 108 degrees
centigrade)
- the counter-intuitive "twistedness" required for fusion (as
exemplified in the case of nuclear fusion by the figure-of-eight shape into
which plasma must be twisted -- whether physically in a stellarator or
magnetically in a tokamak)
As the name implies, ITER-8 specifically engages with the challenges of:
- Imagination, and the need to elicit and sustain it, as is recognized by many
- Transformation, as the need for psychosocial and paradigmatic
transformation in response to conditions recognized as increasingly problematic
- Energy, as the psychosocial energy that sustains the desire and will to live and innovate in response to turbulent social conditions and shortage
- Resourcing, in recognition of the need for sources of
energy that are currently inadequately acknowledged
- Alternation, as the fundamental pragmatic need for switching between alternatives as appropriate rather than promoting particular alternatives as unquestionably preferable
- Technology, as the need for the development of a new range of disciplines, know-how and "techne" to ensure sustainability
- Enactivation, as the radical independence of its initiation
from conventional institutional project logic and its supporting financial
mechanisms
ITER-8 is a coherent act of will, creativity and imagination designed to
serve as an attractor for those who can engage in its processes. It is expected
that some of its processes will be supportive of the creativity required in
the experimental development of the ITER fusion reactor at Cadarache (France).
It cannot be emphasized too strongly that ITER is considered an extremely ambitious experiment which may indeed give rise to energy at the levels hoped -- and without engendering disastrously unmanageable problems, whether envisaged or unforeseen. As an experiment it is an initiative in the face of what might prove impossible -- justified by a sense of potential. Similarly, ITER-8 is an initiative in response to what may be impossible but may indeed have enormous potential.
EXPERIMENTAL CHALLENGES
Experimental challenge of fusion for ITER
The technical issues presented here regarding controlled nuclear fusion may
be initially omitted in preference to the subsequent discussion
of controlled cognitive fusion or even of the comparison
between the two forms of fusion.
Three energy sources are potentially capable of reducing the world's fossil
fuel dependence: nuclear fission, nuclear fusion and solar energy:
- Nuclear fission: a neutron strikes
the nucleus of a heavy element, such as uranium -- splitting to form lighter
elements and releasing heat energy, and leaving problematic amounts of radioactive waste.
- Nuclear fusion: nuclei of light elements,
such as hydrogen are fused to make heavier elements. Fusion releases about
four times more energy for a given mass of fuel than does fission. To make
fusion happen, the atoms of hydrogen must be heated to very high temperatures
(100 million degrees) so they are ionized (forming plasma) and have sufficiently
high energy to fuse, and then held together i.e. confined long enough for
fusion occur.
- Solar: currently this is considered the least viable in terms of the amounts of energy required.
The Joint European Torus (JET) is currently
the world's largest nuclear fusion research facility and has clarified many
of the challenges of fusion reactors [see other
experimental sites].
The acronym ITER previously referred to International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor or International Tokamak Experimental
Reactor. The ITER
Legal Entity (ILE) is now officially known as the ITER International
Fusion Energy Organisation (IIFEO) which holds the license for construction
of ITER. IIFEO will subsequently be responsible for the safe operation of ITER.
IIFEO will be established soon after the signature/ratification of the Joint
Implementation Agreement between the ITER Parties, probably late in 2006.
Before then, the ITER project will continue with its International
Team supported by host organizations (Max Planck IPP, JAERI, and CEA
at Garching, Naka, and Cadarache respectively), and with Participant
Teams provided by each negotiation participant. [more].
ITER
is scheduled to power up in 2016 and will be the penultimate step towards commercial
fusion power -- possibly from 2050 at the earliest.
Fusion: There is a wide variety of information explaining the fusion process (cf Fusion Power Associates; Internet Plasma Physics Education Experience - IPPEX). Theoretically this is a simple physical process: the binding of the nuclei
of two similar atoms, whether it occurs in stars or in a fusion reactor:
- Stars: The fusion reaction occurs in stars, like the Sun, and is
the source of their power. In the centre of the sun, fusion takes place at a
temperature of 15 million degrees and a pressure of 100,000 atmospheres.
Energy is released through a chain of reactions
that begins with the fusion of two protons into a deuteron (a deuterium nucleus
containing one proton and one neutron). The deuteron then combines with another
proton to produce a nucleus of helium-3, which, in turn, fuses with another
helium-3 nucleus to form a nucleus of helium-4 (an alpha particle). This process
takes hundreds of millions of years, ensuring the long-term heating permitting life on the planets. Such protonic
fusion cannot therefore be used as a viable source of terrestrial fusion energy.
- Fusion reactors: Since stellar conditions are not reproducible on Earth, fusion reactors
use lesser pressures and greater temperatures (in the region of 100 million
degrees centigrade, namely 108 degrees) to achieve a more rapid result. In a fusion reactor energy is produced in a similar manner when light atoms in a plasma are fused together
to form heavier ones. The atoms used are deuterium (one proton and one
neutron) and tritium (one proton and two neutrons). Both are isotopes
of hydrogen and very abundant in nature. The
result of forcing them together is to split them into a neutron and a helium-4 nucleus (with two neutrons
and two protons) -- otherwise known as an alpha particle -- plus another particle
that does not carry much energy. Because
this reaction involves only the rearrangement of protons and neutrons, rather
than the transformation of a proton into a neutron, it proceeds much more rapidly
than protonic fusion. The mass of the two incoming nuclei is greater
than the mass of the product. This loss of mass is converted into energy (as predicted by Einstein’s formula, E=mc2), less than in protonic fusion. But, provided the deuterium and
tritium nuclei can be made to collide with one another indefinitely at energies
of between 10 and 100 keV, the reactions proceed at a useful rate for
power production.
Self-heating: For power production, the challenge
is to produce a “burning plasma” where enough ions are confined
at sufficient density and temperature such that the heat from the alpha particles
can maintain the plasma without significant auxiliary heating power. The burning plasma is a
nearly fully-ionized gas in which the fusion power captured by the plasma keeps
the plasma hot. A burning plasma is dominated by this self-heating. This
condition has not yet however been achieved in a laboratory for any useful period of time.
The plasma -- the ionized gas of deuterium and tritium nuclei -- will be heated
by an external source to a temperature of at least 100 million degrees centigrade.
At this temperature, the deuterium and tritium nuclei begin to fuse, forming
helium nuclei and neutrons. These magnetically-confined helium nuclei will
then collide with deuterium nuclei in the gas, transferring some of their energy
to the deuterium nuclei and heating the gas further -- the burning plasma mode.
The plasma becomes self-heating -- as with a star -- and a strong external
energy source is no longer necessary.
The dynamics of the self-heating
are a fundamentally new and key feature studied in ITER. It would be the first
magnetic confinement fusion experiment to produce burning plasma. The reaction
would produce ten times the amount of external power injected into it. If successful,
ITER would produce 500 megawatts of fusion power for 500 seconds or longer
during each "shot" of the fusion experiment, with a repetition
period of roughly 2000 seconds. In contrast, the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor
at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, one of ITER's predecessors that
shut down in 1997, produced a maximum of 11 megawatts for only one-third of
a second. The goal of ITER is to obtain an energy gain (Q) of 10, namely to operate
in a regime where the plasma heating from alpha-particles has twice the value
of auxiliary heating.
Containment: In stars, as natural
fusion reactors, it is the non-material gravity field that confines the plasma
in a stable and long-lived configuration permitting the reactions to take place.
Under the conditions required, a human-scale fusion reactor must also use a
non-material container. To make the reactor small enough, it must use a
much stronger force than gravity, namely the force of a magnetic field. ITER is
to be an experimental magnetic confinement device of the type called a tokamak.
This has a toroidal (doughnut-shaped) configuration and a strong, confining
magnetic field. The tokamak configuration has been under study by fusion plasma
scientists since the 1960s [more]
[more]. It has proven to have
the best confinement of all the configurations so far envisioned [see alternative
confinement concepts: stellarator, reversed-field
pinch (RFP), field
reversed configuration (FRC), spheromak, levitated
dipole]. In the tokamak, poloidal magnetic fields (in the direction of the
doughnut's cross-section) are created primarily by a toroidal current inside
the plasma itself. This combination of toroidal and poloidal magnetic fields
generates an overall nested helical structure which is necessary to keep the
plasma stable [image].
| Tokamak: Toroidal and Poloidal Fields |
 |
Research challenges: Progress to practical fusion energy
is currently determined by the evolution of scientific understanding of hot
plasmas and by advances in certain critical technologies. Plasmas are gases
in which ions and electrons are not attached as atoms or molecules, but rather
move freely. Knowledge of toroidal plasma confinement is still far from being
complete. The key scientific questions in fusion research concern the remaining
uncertainties in the development of fusion as a source of energy. These relate
to the understanding, control, and predictability of burning plasma. They include:
- What limits the pressure of high-temperature plasmas?
- What causes the deterioration in confinement that is observed near the density limit in tokamaks -- which could drastically limit the power of a tokamak fusion reactor?
- How do very energetic particles heat and sustain plasmas?
- What are the precise causes of the loss of plasma thermal energy - especially that of electrons?
- How does heat escape from plasmas?
- What is the danger of those instabilities that theory predicts to be triggered by alpha-particles.
These questions are critical because plasma pressure compared to magnetic field pressure (termed beta) is what ensures the
energy released for fusion power, and so it must be maximized. The energetic
particles created by the fusion process must sustain the temperature of a
fusion plasma, so the heating process must be understood and controlled. If
heat escapes too quickly from a fusion plasma it will cool to too low a temperature,
so the understanding of turbulence and heat transport is a critical element
of fusion energy science.
The plasma must also be maintained long enough for the reactions to occur. The achievement of sufficiently good confinement of the plasma to
permit useful release of energy has turned out to be far more difficult than
the first fusion researchers hoped. Many important optimizations have been
discovered and developed. One unavoidable way to obtain sufficient confinement
is to make the plasma large. The existing large tokamak experiments typically
have plasma radii of three meters. Fueled with the most reactive isotopes of
hydrogen, those tokamaks demonstrated substantial release of fusion energy.
For example, the world's largest tokamak, JET (Joint European Torus), obtained
up to 16 megawatts of fusion reactions for just under a second. But, to sustain
the plasma in these devices required additional heating that was larger. ITER will develop the
technologies required for larger installations, such as large superconducting magnets, diagnostic systems,
plasma control tools, and high heat flux materials.
These questions are not only scientific challenges to comprehension -- a "cognitive
challenge" for humanity. Their solutions must be integrated
successfully in a fusion plasma system. Thus there is an important integrative
and innovative element of fusion research. The sustainable, self-consistent
solution to these questions lies in a plasma whose heat content is largely
sustained by its own fusion reactions, i.e., a “burning plasma”.
The most important technological issues for fusion are then:
- development of techniques to handle high heat fluxes from plasmas
- development of structural materials to withstand high fusion neutron
fluxes while incurring low radioactivity
- development of large-scale superconducting magnets to produce the fields
needed to contain plasmas
These development needs stem from the high heat and neutron fluxes that
emerge from fusion plasmas, and from the need to sustain the magnetic container
with a minimum of power, as is made possible by superconducting magnets. [more]
The reactor design in the case of ITER is based on tokamak as confirmed
by much research [more | more]. The plasma is heated in a ring-shaped vessel (or torus) and
kept away from the vessel walls by applied magnetic fields. The basic components
of the tokamak's magnetic confinement system (see diagram above) are:
-
toroidal field: the field produced around the torus. This is
maintained by magnetic field coils surrounding the vacuum vessel. The toroidal field provide the primary mechanism of confinement
of the plasma particles.
-
poloidal field; the field produced around the plasma cross section.
It pinches the plasma away from the walls and maintains the plasma's shape
and stability. The poloidal field is induced both internally, by the current
driven in the plasma (one of the plasma heating mechanisms), and externally,
by coils that are positioned around the perimeter of the vessel.
Reservations: A range of reservations and criticisms have
been formulated (cf E. Mazzucato, Why
build ITER? 2003; David Montgomery, Possible
Gaps in ITER's Foundations, Physics Today, February 2006;
Raymond Sené, Iter,
techniquement c'est que du bluff! Gazette Nucléaire 211/212,
janvier 2004; Mark Peplow, Fusion
power gets slammed, March 2006; Warren D. Smith, Why
"The Dream of Unlimited Cheap Fusion Power" is a Load of Horseshit, Oct 2000):
- the economic
viability of fusion energy could be seriously impaired due to:
- rapid deterioration in plasma confinement at relatively high plasma densities, far beyond what was, and remains, the density limit of tokamaks;
- raising to acceptable levels the assumed value of the safety factor against the onset of macroscopic instabilities. At the safety factor envisaged, the plasma macroscopic stability (at the plasma pressure
needed for producing the desired fusion power) has been called into question. Such
instabilities would caused the abrupt termination of the discharge
with disastrous consequences for the vacuum vessel and other machine
components.
- the current design of ITER (ITER-FEAT) is associated with
large costs (~$5 billion for construction and at least the same amount for
operation) and an extremely long time schedule (10 years for construction and 20 years for research and decommissioning).
- the construction of ITER will absorb a great fraction of
available resources -- both human and financial -- slowing down the investigation of tokamak physics and the development of alternative concepts.
- it could be at least 50 years before a commercially viable
reactor is built, if at all.
- one estimate gives a 50:50 chance of success, notably because of the difficulties of the engineering
- the lack of a manageable mathematical framework for calculating the state of the plasma in a confinement device in a way that relates the calculation globally and convincingly to what actually happens in the machine. This becomes apparent when theoretical claims are set alongside the experiments being contemplated. Description sliding freely back and forth between ideal and non-ideal descriptions, are not supportable in fluid mechanics, nor is there reason to expect it to be in plasma physics
- the risk of experimentation based on an essentially secondary role for theory, is not necessarily problematic, but is greater if discussion of the conceptual gap between theory and device building is essentially not taking place
- the unproven claim that an energy gain (Q) of 10 can be reached; ITER is based on a very optimistic extrapolation of
existing data, where a small deterioration in plasma confinement would be
sufficient to degrade substantially the achieved energy gain.
- the claim that another objective of ITER, namely the development of the engineering of fusion reactors, is totally unjustified since ITER will have little or nothing to contribute to the two major technological problems of a fusion reactor -- the development of materials that can withstand 14 MeV neutrons and the breeding of tritium.
- incomplete knowledge of what to expect in the thermonuclear regime, makes ITER a risky project that could cause irreparable harm to the
credibility of nuclear fusion.
- the fusion reactor will in fact constitute a significant radioactive risk possibly equivalent to current fission reactors [more]:
- the use of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen with a half-life
of 12.26 years, will need to be manufactured and stored in large quantities.
15-20 kg will be necessary for 2-3000 hours of operation (20 kg of tritium
represent radioactivity of 200 millions curies). Tritium, like hydrogen,
will pass readily through the metals of the installation and constitutes
a danger to health, contrary to what is occasionally claimed [more]
- netrons will have to traverse the combustion chamber if energy is to
be recovered. This flux will render the materials radioactive with significant
half-lives as with fission reactors. Since elements of the installation
will need to be replaced, notably those on the inner surface, these will
constitute a significant amount of highly radioactive waste requiring
disposal.
- tritium is used to boost nuclear weapons and concerned have been expressed that the expected annual shipments of tritium to the ITER reactor will pose certain nuclear proliferation risks, notably of theft or hijack [more | more]
- dependence on a difficult-to-manage group of bureaucratic institutions from a range of countries and cultures (powerfully caricatured by Leonid E. Zakharov, Thermodynamics, Science and Religion in Fusion, 2006)
- concerns expressed regarding the advantages of alternative confinement/containment designs [see alternative
confinement concepts: stellarator, reversed-field pinch (RFP), field reversed configuration (FRC), spheromak, levitated dipole]
As argued by Jo Lister & Henri Weisen (What will we learn from ITER? Europhysics News March/April 2005):
ITER is nonetheless a noble cause, even though its main motivation stems from our increasingly urgent quest for sustainable energy. The nobility resides equally in the physical understanding to be acquired of the complexity of plasmas and in the technical challenges to be met. The requirements for controlled nuclear fusion are potent drivers for advances in physics and technology. This quest has also brought a harvest of fundamental knowledge in physics, in such complex areas as turbulence, magnetohydrodynamics and even material sciences, with implications for apparently unrelated areas such as astrophysics, space physics and industrial plasmas, spawning applications ranging from plasma processing to space propulsion systems, the development of novel materials and superconductors.
Experimental challenge of "cognitive fusion" for ITER-8
What meaning can be associated with any notion of "cognitive fusion"?
Cognitive fusion in practice: It is appropriate to note a range of situations under which some form of "cognitive fusion" might be said to take place:
- scientific laboratory: certain types of laboratory, perhaps framed as "centres of excellence", in which large teams are engaged in research and development, may be recognized as developing an intensive "hot house" atmosphere of exciting, creative work in which insights from all present are fruitfully interwoven in a form of cognitive fusion
- newsroom: for a newspaper or broadcast media, the high pressure atmosphere in a newsroom under rigid deadlines may correspond to a form of cognitive fusion
- creative design laboratory: in contrast to a scientific laboratory, but with a corresponding form of cognitive fusion, design teams of whatever size may also develop a "hot house" atmosphere in which the "cross-fertilization" of ideas is an important factor
- think tank: such environments often correspond to a social (or policy) science variant of the scientific and creative design laboratories and may need to develop policy positions in urgent response to emerging political crises -- at the request of their funding institutions
- hospital emergency room: teams of people in response to a variety of urgent life-or-death cases in a hospital emergency care unit, or intensive care unit, may be functioning under a conditions indicative of a degree of cognitive fusion
- military situation room: in response to military challenges,
whether in defence or attack, the patterns of communication in the command
and control centres are typically indicative of some aspects of cognitive
fusion
- plenary emergency meeting: whether in the form of a parliament, an executive board room, a summit, or a roundtable, the dynamics of the debate in response to urgency may be associated with a form of cognitive fusion
- roundtable dialogue: in contrast with meetings of decision-makers in emergency conditions, gatherings of a more reflective nature ("wisdom keepers", councils of the wise, interfaith dialogues, etc) may be associated with transformative moments resulting from a degree of cognitive fusion
- aerospace situation room: similar in many respects to a military situation room, the challenge for a team of controlling aerospace missions, especially under emergency conditions, may involve degrees of cognitive fusion
- disaster emergency room: as indicated by the challenge
of responding to the Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, the coordination
of humanitarian relief and reconstruction teams under emergency conditions
with inadequate (or poorly channelled) resources may also be understood in
terms of cognitive fusion
- technical control centre: the conditions, operations, urgencies and pressures of control centres for power distribution (notably in time of black out), air traffic control (emergencies), nuclear power station control, etc
- communities: intentional communities may be deliberately envisaged as contexts in which to enhance the possibility of some form of cognitive fusion, whether through their work, their rituals or their meditation. More generally, community development may seek to achieve a low key level of cognitive fusion.
- collective meditation: whether practiced regularly (as in intentional communities, monasteries, etc) or in occasional ritual gatherings, the associated spiritual attunement may be understood to be associated with a level of cognitive fusion. For example, the Transcendental Meditation group promotes such activity to alleviate problematic psychosocial conditions.
- team: under certain conditions a sporting team, a business team, or a team of volunteers may function at
a surprisingly high level of integration -- as with their military analogues (SWAT teams, etc). In training such groups, the aim may be to "fuse" people into a team.
- internet gaming: multi-user internet games, calling for strategy and tactics, typically involve a degree of cognitive fusion analogous to that required of fighter pilots in battlefield scenarios (see below). For example: "Cyworld is threatening to swallow South Korea. Less than four years after its launch, 15 million people, or almost a third of the country's population, are members" (BusinessWeek online, September 2005).
A variety of initiatives have endeavoured to gather together the best and
the brightest, under perfect conditions, in order to elicit creative collective
responses -- possibly to the conditions of the planet. Examples include: Mensa
International, Collective
Wisdom Initiative, Project Mind Foundation, collective
intelligence (Collective
Intelligence, Community
Intelligence, swarm intelligence, etc), indigenous "wisdom keepers",
interfaith dialogues, etc
Contemporary research: As might be expected, the focus of
contemporary research is on two totally contrasting, if not mutually contradictory,
understandings of "cognitive fusion":
- Psychopathology: Experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion are considered to underlie most forms of psychopathology. In a review of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a reframed variant of classical cognitive behaviour therapy, Michael J Dougher notes:
In some contexts, the bidirectional
nature of verbal relations is such that
verbal stimuli and their referents fuse together
or become functionally inseparable.
These contexts are called contexts of literality,
and the effect is called cognitive fusion. .... Paradox is an important component of ACT
because it is believed that it helps to break
down the literality of language, loosens the
cognitive fusion in verbal relations, and
weakens rule governance when it is not useful. (see also Steven C. Hayes, et al Acceptance and Commitment Therapy - An Experiential Approach to Behavior Change, 2003).
Within this framework, therapeutic emphasis is on achieving "cognitive defusion". Steven C. Hayes & Chad Shenk (Operationalizing Mindfulness Without Unnecessary Attachments, Clinical Psychology: Science & Practice, 11, 2004, pp 249–254, 2004] note, in the case of "cognitive fusion", that for therapists its "excesses are what mindfulness helps rein in". They argue:
There are scientific advantages to defining mindfulness in terms of the psychological processes involved. Doing so, however, necessarily uncouples mindfulness from any given technology, including meditation. Defining mindfulness in terms of the self-regulation of attention and a posture of acceptance seems progressive, but there are underlying philosophical attachments in the proposed definition that might limit its applicability if they are treated too rigidly.
This understanding of mindfulness is clarified elsewhere by Lindsay Fletcher & Steven C. Hayes (Relational Frame Theory, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and a Functional Analytic Definition of Mindfulness, Journal of Rational Emotive and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy):
Relational Frame Theory is described to show how human suffering is created by entanglement with the cognitive networks made possible by language. Mindfulness can be understood as a collection of related processes that function to undermine the dominance of verbal networks, especially involving temporal and evaluative relations. These processes include acceptance, defusion, contact with the present moment, and the transcendent sense of self....
Thoughts are often experienced indirectly – in the form of the change in the functions of the world they produce – rather than as a process occurring in the moment. This is termed “cognitive fusion”. It has three important side effects relevant to the topic at hand.
First, temporal and evaluative relations become attached to internal events, and people begin to predict, fear, and attempt to regulate and avoid their own thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations even when that process is harmful. This is termed “experiential avoidance” (Hayes et al., 1996).
Second, people become attached to their own self-descriptions and seek to maintain them and to be right about them.
Third, the present moment disappears into a cacophony of human thinking and its reasons, explanations, and justifications for behavior. The effect of these processes is “psychological inflexibility” which is the inability to persist or change behavior in the service of chosen values.
- Enhanced decision-making: As a development of preoccupation with "data fusion" and "information fusion", "cognitive fusion" is used to describe the dynamic analysis of data combined from multiple sources in order to recognize complex dynamic situation patterns, construct models or hypotheses of unfolding situations, and take action in response to situations (cf G. Jakobson, et al. An Approach to Integrated Cognitive Fusion, 2004). The authors are concerned with:
... situations such as those encountered in the management of a battlespace, surveillance of complex technological systems, and mobilization of countermeasures in real-time emergency situations in health care and homeland security applications. These applications |