14th September 2008 | Draft
Dynamic Interrelationship of Symbols
of Coherent
Experiential Representation of Nonduality (DISCERN)
- / -
Introduction
Colliding values
Uncertainty and risk
Unique technical metaphor
Metaphorical mirroring of extreme denial
Analogous technological challenges
Enabling coherence through knowledge cybernetics
Interplay of value pillars appropriate to sustainability
Hyperdimensional generic coding systems
Introduction
This speculative comment was produced on the occasion of the activation of
the CERN Large
Hadron Collider in Geneva which happened to coincide with the production
of an animation prepared for presentation to the World Academy of Art and
Science (Hyderbad, 2008) in a Panel on Ethics and Policies for Sustainable
Futures (Dynamic
Exploration of Value Configurations: interrelating traditional cultural symbols
through animation, 2008). A comparison is made with that animation
in terms of the discipline required for appropriate fundamental learnings
regarding psychosocial systems.
Colliding values
The emerging global knowledge society
and civilization is recognized as being subject to the dangerous dynamics of
clashing values that has been termed the "clash of civilizations" (Sam
Huntington, The
Clash of Civilizations, 1993). These and other factors
are recognized as leading to possible civilizational collapse (Jared
M. Diamond,
Collapse:
How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, 2005; Thomas
Homer-Dixon,
The Upside of
Down: catastrophe, creativity, and the renewal of civilization,
2006).
Relatively little intellectual effort is devoted to an integrative approach
to these challenges and possible remedial measures.
There is therefore a degree
of irony that, by comparison, unprecedented research funding ($9 billion) and
intellectual resources have been devoted through the European
Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) over recent years to the construction
of the Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) (put on line on the day the prototype
of the more complex animation was first put on the web). The LHC is
the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It has been
theorized that the collider will produce the elusive Higgs
boson (popularized as the
God Particle), the
observation of which could confirm the predictions and missing links in the
Standard Model of physics and could explain how other elementary particles
acquire properties such as mass. Beyond insight into "anti-matter",
also of interest is insight into the 25% of "dark
matter" and the 70% of "dark
energy" of which it is inferred that the universe is composed
Basic to the research initiative is a process
of directing two beams of protons, circulating at near-light speeds in
opposite directions, into each other in order to observe what is produced
-- hopefully replicating conditions at the origin of the universe at the time
of the Big Bang. Of particular
interest is possible confirmation of the 10-dimensionality of the universe.
Uncertainty and risk
It has been argued by some scientists
that this research is an indulgence at a time when there are major societal
and planetary challenges that are not being effectively addressed , as is the
case with the former government chief scientist of the UK, Sir
David King ('Climate
crisis' needs brain gain, The Guardian, 8 September 2008).
Such remarks are considered "misguided" by others (Martin
Rees, Reach
for the stars,
The Guardian, 8 September 2008). Some physicists have expressed concern
at the risk of generating black holes endangering the planet. However it is
interesting that those physicists in favour of the project are absolutely certain
that the project is free of any such larger risk -- curious for a discipline
that has introduced the world to inherent uncertainty and bases its most fundamental
thinking on the Uncertainty
Principle. Alternatively, pehaps that it is that they consider the risk
is "statistically acceptable" -- irrespective of other perspectives
and understandings by other disciplines of the Precautionary
Principle.
It is also curious that it is the "weight of
evidence" that has persuaded what is presumably a majority of physicists of
the insignificance of the risk involved -- in a project that is designed to
enable understanding of how the constituents of matter acquire "mass". It might
be argued that different belief systems are equally persuaded, with absolute
certainty, of the weight of evidence in support of their respective understandings
-- despite views to the contrary (considered misguided) and with seemingly
no more sophisticated means of "weighing the evidence".
As documented by the evidence of Jared Diamond and Thomas Homer-Dixon, it
might be argued that global civilization is already in process of collapsing
into a black hole -- although many, holding contrary value systems, would also
consider such interpretations to be misguided. It is appropriate to
ask to what degree these issues should be left to those who claim specially
relevant expertise (Issues
too Important to be Left to Specialists: selected web resources, 2004).
Unique technical metaphor
This may be seen as a process
of cognititive displacement and misplaced concreteness in the application
of collective intelligence, in an effectively unconscious civilization (John
Ralston Saul, The Unconscious Civilization, 1995). However it
may also be argued that this research
focused on use of the CERN Collider may -- by analogy -- also offers unforeseen
insights into "colliding civilizations" and value systems (cf Robert
D. Romanyshyn, Technology as Symptom and Dream,
1989). These
may be as fundamental as those expected in the domain of fundamental physics,
if not more so. Given the level of abstraction, both cases may be understood
as dealing with "values"..
In both cases the focus is on phenomena of the highest subtlety -- fundamental
to the organization of the mundane world as it is known. An interesting counterpart
to the God Particle might, for example, be greater collective insight into
the implications of the Monster
Group, also known
as the Fischer-Griess Monster, or the Friendly Giant (Potential
Psychosocial Significance of Monstrous Moonshine: an exceptional form of symmetry
as a Rosetta stone for cognitive frameworks, 2007).
A similar argument has previously been made in greater detail with respect
to the significance of another major research project ITER into
the application of fundamental physics to nuclear fusion (Enactivating
a Cognitive Fusion Reactor Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing (ITER-8),
2006). In that case the analogy was explored in a set of complementary
studies (Complementarity
and Self-Reflexivity between nuclear fusion and cognitive fusion,
2006; Dematerialization
and Virtualization comparison of nuclear fusion and cognitive fusion,
2006; Cognitive Fusion
through Myth and Symbol Making, 2006).
Metaphorical mirroring of extreme denial
Given the degree
of isomorphism, is the CERN initiative to be seen as a splendid metaphor
of the degree of extreme denial characteristic of conventional scientific thinking
at its best? To what extent is the degree of focus on the most fundamental
secrets of the known universe and its origins to be seen as comparable to the
much-cited tale of the person searching at night under a lamplight for lost
keys, because it was "easier"
to search there all the person knows the keys to have been lost beyond the
lighted area where the search was more difficult?
The scientific and technical problems of the CERN initiative are indeed "easier"
than the open system psychosocial problems with which civilization is faced
-- and which physicists consider irrelevant to their fundamental preoccupations.
Curiously physicists do indeed hypothesize the existence of a multidimensional
universe beyond their ken -- characterized by 25% of "dark matter" and 70%
of "dark energy". These might be considered very appropriate metaphors of the
psychosocial portions of the universe on which physicists have turned their
back and are consequently much challenged to understand --but in
which many are obliged to "live and move and have their being". It is perhaps
no wonder, given the exclusively material focus of physicists, that it is also
the abode of a form of "anti-matter".
The brilliant intellectual light of the CERN initiative in exploring the "unknown"
would seem to cast a deep shadow which calls for other modes of understanding.
However it is that initiative that will "highlight" pointers to the kind of
disciplined collective thinking that is required for its exploration -- and
the challenges of dealing cognitively with "dark matter", "dark energy" and
"anti-matter" -- as the "unknowns" of human civilization.
Analogous technological challenges
Despite their seeming
incommensurability, the core technological challenge of the CERN Collider is
to ensure the circulation of a coherent beam of high-energy particles at near-light
speeds in a 27 km circular tunnel at temperatures close to absolute zero --
in order to observe the outcome of collisions between particles moving in opposite
directions.
A project that might be named as DISCERN, could fruitfully
be concerned with how to envisage the conditions appropriate to "controlling"
the sustainable circulation of a coherent beam of collective attention -- in
collision with another such beam moving in the "opposite" direction
(perhaps exemplified by the "clash" between Christianity and Islam,
in which each frames the direction of the other as "evil"). That
attention, essentially virtual rather than material, is intimately related
to the necessarily subtle values that inform psychosocial organization -- typically
destabilized by colliding value systems. The cognitive discipline required
to respond to the challenge in the first case is therefore potentially very
suggestive of that required in the second case.
The basic point is whether
the CERN initiative is indicative of new ways of thinking -- with its enabling
technology of requisite complexity commensurate with the challenge of colliding
value frameworks. Does it indicate the kind of configuration of carefully applied
thinking required for the challenge of the times -- the kind of thinking that
is being systematically avoided?.
Given the manner in which faiths frame those of other persuasion as "evil"
and a deadly threat, justifying thr severest action by faith-based government,
it might be asked whether such new thinking in pursuit of understanding of
"dark energy" and "anti-matter" would enable more fruitful responses to what
is currently beyond conventional comprehension (Global
Strategic Implications of the "Unsaid": from myth-making towards
a "wisdom society",
2003).
Enabling coherence through knowledge cybernetics
Framed in
this way, the animations may be seen as offering a view longitudinally
"down" the DISCERN tunnel "through" a cross-section of
it. The cross-section highlights schematically the configuration of "magnets" through
which the coherence of the beam of collective attention down the tunnel is
ensured. These are necessarily variously called into play in response to instabilities
in that beam. As a complex multidimensional container the configuration of
elements, around the circumference highlighted by the cross-section, may simultaneously
be understood as an atemporal representation of the circular tunnel as a whole.
The two views may be understood as resulting from two intertwined tori (Comprehension
of Requisite Variety for Sustainable Psychosocial Dynamics: transforming a
matrix classification onto intertwined tori, 2006) -- with the mutlidimensional
complexity of the "tunnel" then recalling the paradoxes of the Ouroboros
and the significance of modern variants modelled by the Klein
bottle.
More schematically, encoding the 6-fold Star of David pattern into 64 distinct
possibilities offers another way of recognizing how coherent passage of the
beam of attention "through it" is ensured through counter-balancing the attraction
and repulsion of its components under different conditions -- represented more
specifically by the 64 I
Ching hexagrams and
the commentaries on them (Transformation
Metaphors derived experimentally from the Chinese Book of Changes (I Ching)
-- for sustainable dialogue, vision, conferencing, policy, network, community
and lifestyle, 1997). The LHC tunnel cross-section highlights an 8-fold
configuration magnets, possibly to be considered an alternative design to ensure
beam stability. Such an 8-fold configuration was the subject of an earlier
animation of the BaGua configuration
of trigrams that is fundamental to the set of 64 hexagrams (Animation
of Classical BaGua Arrangements, 2008).
The cognitive control challenges may come to be understood through the emerging
discipline of knowledge cybernetics (Maurice Yolles, Knowledge
Cybernetics: a new metaphor for social collectives, Intellect,
3, 2006, 1; Y.Zude and M. Yolles, From
Knowledge Cybernetics to Feng Shui).
Interplay of value pillars appropriate to sustainability
Again,
as noted above, the animation exercise is an attempt to configure the
"pillars" with which values are associated for institutional strategic
purposes. In that sense the configurations of the hexagrams (whether in the
form of Star of David or I
Ching) are indications
of the complex alternation between decison-making conditions through which
coherent governance is sustained "between the pillars" -- in progress "along
the tunnel". More powerful however is the implication of an atemporal
or cyclic condition appropriate to sustainability. The challenge for collectivew
intelligence is then one of understanding how to sustain "circulation
of the light", as
explored metaphorically in the Secret
of the Golden Flower (Tai Yi Jin Hua Zong Zhi).
Given the fundamental importance to value systems and cultural identity associated
with the particular religious symbols evoked during the course of the more
complex animations, the challenge is whether these are indeed individually
associated with particular modes of the circulation of awareness. Are they,
as speculatively implied, indicative of particular stabilizing conditions and/or
vulnerabilities to instability?
Hyperdimensional generic coding systems
A suggestive lead
to further reflection is the documented association made between the set of I
Ching hexagrams
as a binary coding system and the genetic code, notably with respect to the
amino acids essential to human life. As summarized from other studies by Tony
Smith (I
Ching (Ho Tu and Lo Shu), Genetic Code, Tai Hsuan Ching, and the D4-D5-E6-E7-E8
VoDou Physics Model), the genetic code may be represented by a
six-dimensional boolean hypercube in which the codons occupy the 64 vertices
(nodes) in such a way that all kinship neighborhoods are correctly represented
and are labelled with the corresponding amino acid.
As a fundamentally atemporal focus of attention
on the multidimensionality of the "here and now", are the symbols engendered
within the geometry of the animation indicative of the essential role (under
particular conditions) played by modes of understanding especially promoted
by particular religious disciplines that attach high value to those symbols
(to the point of identifying with them)? Do the forms of syncretism,
that are typically a focus for current criticism, obscure the complex dynamics
through which various subtle perspectives are called into play in particular
phases of that atemporal cycle? Given the hypotheses whose confirmation is
sought through the LHC Collider, is conventional syncretism of value systems
necessarily totally inappropriate to a pattern of interrelationships that can
only be satisfied within a 10-dimensional framework -- of which the 6-dimensional
hypercube represents and approximation?
The 8-fold configuration of BaGua, basic to the 8 "houses"
of the I Ching coding system (Organization
of I Ching hexagrams in terms of traditional "houses", 1995). In this light, might these
be fundamental to a periodical organization of belief systems analogous to
that of the chemical elements? In which case is one way of understanding the
kind of "syncretism" called for best rendered comprehensible through metaphors
based on sound, as discussed elsewhere (Tuning
a Periodic Table of Religions, Epistemologies and Spirituality -- including
the sciences and other belief systems, 2007)?
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