Conscious creativity sustaining confidelity: a solar metaphor

Embodiment of Identity in Conscious Creativity (Part #2)

Richer metaphors: How is the significance of a global reserve currency to be comprehended to enable its widespread communication to those from whom consensus is expected -- and especially to ensure that it can be sustained?

The suggestion, developed elsewhere, is that increasingly there is a need for richer metaphors to offer insight into intangibles beyond the ready comprehension of most when described in technical terms (In Quest of Mnemonic Catalysts for Comprehension of Complex Psychosocial Dynamics, 2007; In Quest of Uncommon Ground: beyond impoverished metaphor and the impotence of words of power, 1997). The question is whether any metaphor used for communication purposes is of requisite complexity to act as a fruitful template.

Disparate threads: The argument above points to the relevance and possibility of a more complex "interweaving" of several threads, as previously discussed (Interweaving Thematic Threads and Learning Pathways, 2010). These include:

consciousness as experienced and expressed through creativity
confidelity and mutuality as integratively experienced in shared humour and play (Enacting Transformative Integral Thinking through Playful Elegance, 2010)
cognitive engagement with globality fundamental to the collective credibility and viability of any global system

Fusion process: Given the manner in which daily life as it is known is sustained by solar energy, there is a case for exploring solar processes as a metaphor for the most fundamental global reserve currency. Given that these processes are an instance of the process of nuclear fusion on which the future energy needs of global civilization are controversially dependent, they merit even more careful attention. In that light it could be argued (if only playfully) that it is precisely the cognitive operations with which the "con" prefix is associated which may most intimately correspond to "solar" or "fusion" processes. This specifically then includes the "ambiguity" of "con".

Cognitive engagement: With respect to the dynamics of the global monetary system, much has been made of the temporal context in which currency traders function, obliged as they are to make high-risk decisions, under pressure, in the moment in the light of their confidence in their speculative knowledge of emerging conditions -- a confidence shared to a degree with other traders and their clients. Whilst the dynamics of the context may induce and sustain a desirable adrenalin rush, as with gamblers, individual and collective identity is intimately entangled in the manner in which the process is engaged.

Confidelity in the moment: A sense of the quality of such collective engagement is offered by the collective appreciation of humour and the bonding to which it may give rise (Humour and Play-Fullness: Essential integrative processes in governance, religion and transdisciplinarity, 2005) -- as a feature of confidelity. More philosophically or cynically, according to circumstances, this may evoke remarks to the effect that "life is like a joke" or even "life is a joke". Any engagement in the moment, as in the case of currency traders, necessitates a form of creativity to a high degree. The emergent collective consciousness associated with the highly entangled processes of humour and creativity is discussed below in its relation to ****

Solar processes: As a metaphor, solar processes are especially significant (if not impressive) at the time of writing given the coincidence of a G20 financial ministerials meeting (discussing monetary system reform) with an exceptional solar flare (Solar flare to jam Earth's communications, ABC News, 17 February 2011). That flare highlights the systemic capacity of the Earth's magnetosphere to handle gracefully the potentially disastrous impact of such flares on the Earth's biosphere, although greater threats have been identified (Alok Jha, Solar storms could create $2tn 'global Katrina', The Guardian, 21 February 2011. This is suggestive of stabilizing characteristics required by a global currency system.

Do solar processes (as currently understood) offer useful models of consciousness as experienced in the moment -- as many traditions have implied? The essential solar nuclear fusion processes -- releasing the energy that sustains life on the planet -- are based on the conversion of hydrogen into helium. They are understood to be:

the proton-proton chain reaction (aka p-p chain) within stars smaller than the Sun (and for most of the life of the Sun)
the CNO cycle (for carbon-nitrogen-oxygen) within stars larger than the Sun (with less than 2% of the helium generated in the Sun coming from this cycle)
two other processes (hypothesized within older stars) are:
- the triple-alpha process
- the helium flash

Linear "p-p chain": Exploring the first fusion process (the proton-proton chain reaction) as a potential metaphoric template, the integrative "con" process might be understood as "fuelled" as follows -- especially when society is upheld as "fuelled" by hope and exploring the possibility of dependence on hydrogen fuel cells:

Hydrogen	Hope
hydrogen, as fuel for the process	hope, as the attitude which enables any creative, integrative process
relative inexhaustibility of hydrogen reserves in the Sun	as summarized in the poem: Hope springs eternal in the human breast (as in the poem below)
although seemingly "inexhaustible", there are finite limits to the exploitation of such reserves of hydrogen within any star	although assumed to "spring eternal", the progressive loss of hope for many has long been widely noted, especially as associated with failing initiatives, aging and recognition of mortality
as hydrogen is exhausted, other process come into play	as hope is exhausted for individuals and cultures, other processes (notably of decline) come into play -- associated with "giving up", despair, and disappearance

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
(Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1733)

Fuelled in this way, the question is the insights potentially offered by the solar process for the creative process implied by the dynamics of "con". The latter must necessarily focus on whether the metaphor fruitfully informs current insights into creativity. Of interest in this respect is the central importance attached to this process by Arthur Koestler as articulated in The Act of Creation (1964).

Especially relevant as a context for this focus is both his own existential encounter with death, embodied in his influential Darkness at Noon (1940), and his pioneering efforts at integrative thinking in a 12-year series of symposia at Alpbach (now the European Alpbach Forum). This process he later summarized, controversially, in caricature (The Call-Girls: a tragicomedy with a prologue and epilogue, 1972).This is a novel about scholars making a living on the international seminar-conference circuit, 1972). In the terms of this argument, the series might be described as experiments with integrative "con" in response to concern about human destructiveness.

The argument here is that the p-p fusion process offers a way of looking at conceptual blending (aka conceptual integration). This is a general theory of cognition. whereby elements and vital relations from diverse scenarios are "blended" in a subconscious process assumed to be ubiquitous to everyday thought and language. Insights obtained from these blends constitute the products of creative thinking. The theory was developed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner (The Way We Think: conceptual blending and the mind's hidden complexities, 2002). The development of this theory from 1993 is variously described (Conceptual Integration and Formal Expression; Blending and Conceptual Integration). Koestler's work is recognized as an early forerunner of conceptual blending. He had identified a common pattern in creative achievements in the arts, sciences and humour that he had termed "bisociation of matrices".

It is recognized that conceptual blending is not itself a theory of creativity, inasmuch as it does not illuminate the issue of where the inputs to a blend actually come from. It is however upheld as providing a rich terminology for describing the creative products of others, but has little to say on the inspiration that serves as the starting point for each blend. The p-p fusion process may however offer insights into these processes of "bisociation" or "blending" in the experience of creativity.

Nuclear fusion as a metaphor of cognitive fusion
	Proton-Proton chain reaction Reduced images reproduced from Wikipedia entry (click on each for larger versions)
Step 1: fusion of two protons, nuclei of hydrogen ¹H, into deuterium (²H), releasing a positron and a neutrino as one proton changes into a neutron. The positron immediately annihilates with an electron, and their mass energy is carried off by two gamma ray photons. Step 1 is extremely slow, both because the protons have to tunnel through the Coulomb barrier and because it depends on weak interactions.		Step 1: an integrative ("con") process can be understood as necessitating the fusion of at least two distinct positive initiatives, perspectives or positions -- with which there is some form of psychoactive engagement and identification. The "energy" released as a form of "enlightenment" (a "creative spark") is associated with one of the "positives" transforming into some form of "neutral" perspective. The slowness of the creative process may then be understood in terms of the need for "positivity" to "tunnel" through cognitive barriers and the dependence of this process on "weak interactions". This is evident in the case of the emergence of any political "bipartisanship"
Step 2: the deuterium produced in the first stage can fuse with another hydrogen to produce a light isotope of helium (³He). There are then three possible paths to generate helium-4 (⁴He). There is also an extremely rare fourth path.		Step 2: the resultant two-fold insight (whether understood as complementarity or bipartisanship) can now associate with another positive perspective to produce a form of "integration lite". This too is accompanied by the release of energy. There are then various paths towards integration of greater consequence.
Step 3 (option I): Helium-4 comes from fusion of two of the helium-3 nuclei produced. (Frequency in the Sun: 86%). The complete fusion reaction through this option releases a net energy of 26.7 MeV and is dominant at temperatures of 10 to 14 MK (starting to occur at temperatures around 4x10⁶ K). Below this temperature range, the p-p chain does not produce much helium-4		Step 3 (option I): The completion of the integrative ("con") process results in the fusion of two instances of "integration lite" -- effectively constructing a stable, coherent "integrative configuration", whether in conceptual terms alone or with implications for psychosocial organization. This creative process as a whole occurs only at high levels of "heat" (as commonly used to describe contexts and conditions of creativity).
Step 3 (option II): fusion of ³He with a pre-existing ⁴He to make beryllium. (Frequency in the Sun: 14%). This path is dominant at temperatures of 14 to 23 MK with the complete fusion reaction through this option releasing a net energy of 14 MeV or less, depending on conditions.		Step 3 (option II): fusion of "integration lite" with a pre-existing, stable "integrative configuration" to make an integrative configuration of greater complexity -- releasing energy in the process. This path is dominant in more energetic psychosocial contexts than option I.
Step 3 (option III): fusion of ³He with a pre-existing ⁴He to make beryllium. (Frequency in the Sun: 0.11%). This path is dominant at temperatures exceeding 23 MK.		Step 3 (option III): fusion of "integration lite" with a pre-existing, stable "integrative configuration" to make an integrative configuration of greater complexity -- releasing energy in the process. This path is dominant in more energetic psychosocial contexts than option II.

Cyclic "CNO cycle": Ironically, and delightfully appropriate to this argument, "CNO" offers an appropriate anagram of "con" -- especially in the light of the cyclic aspects of the integrative nature of the latter (discussed below). Theoretical models show that the second fusion process, the CNO cycle (aka carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle) is the dominant source of energy in stars more massive than about 1.3 times the mass of the Sun. The CNO cycle starts occurring at approximately 13x10⁶K but its energy output rises much faster with increasing temperatures. At approximately 17x10⁶K, the cycle starts becoming the dominant source of energy. Exploring this cyclic fusion process as a potential metaphoric template, the integrative "con" process might be understood as "fuelled" as follows.

	CNO cycle Reduced image reproduced from Wikipedia entry (click for larger version)
In the CNO cycle, four protons fuse, using carbon, nitrogen and oxygen isotopes as a catalyst, to produce one alpha particle, two positrons and two electron neutrinos. The positrons will almost instantly annihilate with electrons, releasing energy in the form of gamma rays. The neutrinos escape from the star carrying away some energy. The carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopes are in effect one nucleus that goes through a number of transformations in an endless loop.		In the "con" cycle, four distinct positive initiatives, perspectives or positions (with which there is some form of psychoactive engagement and identification) fuse -- using three other integrative configurations as catalysts. In so doing they release energy in various forms (insight, etc). The three catalytic configurations are in effect variant forms of a common configuration that go through a number of transformations in an endless loop.

Creativity and humour: Experience in the moment of creativity is a reality for many, but its stages are necessarily elusive to comprehension and articulation in the moment. Koestler's proposal for a global theory of creative activity (The Act of Creation, 1964) encompasses humour, scientific inquiry, and art. For him any creative act is a bisociation (not mere association) of two (or more) apparently incompatible frames of thought. Employing a spatial metaphor, he refers to such frames of thought as matrices arguing: "any ability, habit, or skill, any pattern of ordered behaviour governed by a 'code' of fixed rules". Each such matrix is understood in the comparison above as a form of positive initiative, perspectives or position (with which there is some form of psychoactive engagement and identification).

More readily comprehensible in this understanding (and according to the Wikipedia summary), in the case of jokes and humour the audience is led to expect a certain outcome compatible with a particular matrix (e.g. the narrative storyline). A punch line, typically with an ironic twist, replaces the original matrix with an alternative to comic effect. The structure of a joke, then, is essentially that of bait-and-switch, namely a form of confidence trick, appropriately consistent with the argument here regarding the ambiguity of "con".

In scientific inquiry, the two matrices are fused into a new larger synthesis. The recognition that two previously disconnected matrices are compatible generates the experience of eureka -- effectively the dynamic integrative characteristic of the "con". In the case of the arts and in ritual, the two matrices are held in juxtaposition to one another. Observing art is a process of experiencing this juxtaposition, with both matrices sustained. This argument is consistent with that relating to correspondences (Theories of Correspondences -- and potential equivalences between them in correlative thinking, 2007).

Koestler identifies three types of creative individual: the Artist, the Sage and the Jester. These three elements have been upheld as necessary in business and are considered to be identifable in all "truly creative" companies. The argument can be fruitfully extended to the forms of creativity appreciated in gardening, the culinary arts and decoration -- significantly fuelled by expectant hope, intimately entangled with a degree of confidence.

It is intriguing from the above perspective that the term "star" is so widely used to identify creative artists and their capacity to engender humour, insight and even warmth. Perhaps even more intriguing is how the exhaustion of this capacity is experienced, effectively ending their careers.