Navigating the seasons of the adaptive cycle: natural alchemy?

Flowering of Civilization -- Deflowering of Culture (Part #10)

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The process of flow, as evident in flowers, is characterized by a cycle of distinct phases of adaptation. The adaptive cycle is a focus of the Resilience Alliance. It is featured in a study by Thomas Homer-Dixon (The Upside of Down: catastrophe, creativity, and the renewal of civilization, 2006).

Representation of adaptive cycle in complex systems (with many variants available via Google images)
(adapted from a variant of Thomas Homer-Dixon, The Upside of Down, 2006)	(as reproduced from Panarchy, as described by The Sustainable Scale Project)

Possible animations: Concerns with the nature of the adaptive cycle can be tentatively related to elements of the argument above, as in the following animation. This endeavours to hold generic systemic processes evident in plants, individuals and collectivities -- whether with respect to a respiratory cycle or to a life cycle. Of particular interest is the manner in which living and dying may figure ambiguously in metaphorical terms at unexpected parts of the cycle under particular conditions. This is evident with respect "dying to live" (as may be articulated by the young, those faced with crisis, or in a terminal condition) and with respect to "living to die" (as with respect to those dedicated to life-threatening combat).

The central line separating light and dark regions is used to hold the ambiguity arising from positive and negative feedback associated with challenges and opportunities in the face of crises and constraints. As such it merits considerations as a form of driver to the process. This dynamic is especially meaningful to those with a bipolar affective disorder -- raising the interesting question as to a possible collective analogue, alternating between maniacal "expression" and the deepest "depression".

Of existential interest is the manner in which the animation positions a "seed of hope" and a "seed of despair" -- consistent with the flower metaphor.

Experimental animation of the phases of flowering and deflowering

The depiction of the "seeds" above is an effort to hold, respectively:

• the degree of hope associated with the conception of fresh proposals and initiatives -- "seeds of change" -- in a context of despair. As articulated by physicist Peter Russell, this could be understood in terms of The White Hole in Time: our future evolution and the meaning of now (1993)
• the degree of despair, deception and depression engendered by the failure of initiatives, understood (as noted Metaphors to Die By) as a form of "black hole" into which enthusiasm sinks (as into a Slough of Despond). This is notably evident from critical comments in the alternative press regarding what is not working. This is perhaps to be recognized, humorously, in terms of the vulnerability arising from progressive thinning of the capacity to response to surprise (the "Oh Hole"?) -- and more seriously what becomes evident as a consequence, as argued by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Black Swan: the impact of the highly improbable,2010).

Arguably the two extremes are symbolized to a degree by the red poppy and its challenging implications. As noted by Ann Elias (War and the Visual Language of Flowers: an antipodean perspective, War, Literature and the Arts, 2008):

But so mutable is the flower as cultural sign, and so complex the realm of aesthetics, that the red poppy alone is able to configure the military body in contradictory ways as heroic, ruined, and also sexualised.

The drama and symbolism of the poppy's sanguine flesh and black centre, a 'well' that seems to bear the gaze of the dead, has been remarked upon so often that there seems no possible way to speak about it outside clichés. Yet the possibility that it can be expressed afresh never fails to allure....Underpinning the authority of the poppy is its clear and vivid form that allows our thoughts to concentrate on the simplicity of its language in an effort to comprehend the meaning of war. But the poppy is deceptively simple, and hidden behind its clarity and vivacity is an unfathomable reality. This is why the subject of the poppy is returned to repetitively: no representation of it is adequate just as no representation of war can express it sufficiently.

Curiously the seeds of hope could be understood as indicative of creative attachment to conventional reality and its transformation, whereas those of deception could be understood as fruitful indications of misplaced attachment. This suggests a need for detachment and an alternative framework, through a process of critical thinking and a "dying to the old".

With respect to the mutability of associations, Elias also notes that arising from the contrast between the red poppy and the white variant:

But peace ceremonies post-dating 1933 have appropriated the white poppy. Such is the power of the aesthetics of colour and form that in Australia, Britain, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States the red poppy and the white poppy express two opposing views on the morality of war: the red poppy embodies the national soul, the celebration of history, and the commemoration of sacrifice through blood that was spilt for the freedom of the nation; the white poppy makes a judgment about the other commenting that it romanticises the ideology of nation-states and glosses over the actuality that their histories are soaked in blood.

Any effort to separate the two halves of the pattern, as contrasting sets of associations, notably through denial of the negative (the "old") as a means of giving focus to the positive (the "new") is then usefully to be compared to the questionable remedy of lobotomy (Being Positive Avoiding Negativity: management challenge of positive vs negative, 2005). There is a sense in which the light of hope only enables awareness of a "local sun", whereas the darkness of despair renders apparent the multitude of "other stars" -- implying the integrity of an even larger universe, beyond the observable. The value of such darkness is recognized in various traditions (Enlightening Endarkenment: selected web resources on the challenge to comprehension, 2005). Although Abyssinia does not derive from "abyss", there is some poetic charm in this context to the fact that a sgnificant proportion of imported cut flowers derive from a region known for its mountain abysses.

As a basis for more elaborate animations, the "seeds" may be understood as the focus of spiral dynamics, as separately described with more extensive animations (Convergence of 30 Disabling Global Trends: mapping the social climate change engendering a perfect storm, 2012). As implied by that title, each of the 30 arrows is associated there with a named trend, with respect to "despair" -- and correspondingly with respect to "hope". The 4 variants below could be further distinguished and combined to constitute a pattern of 16 by associating significance to the directionality of the spirals, for example.

Suggestive alternative distinction between "seeds" as source and sink (as a basis for more complex animations)
Common framing of despair and hope		Critical reframing
Despair as sink (arrows in)			Despair as source (arrows out)
Hope as source (arrows out)			Hope as source (arrows out)
Critical thinking elicited and Hope neutralizing despair		Despair and Hope neutralizing despair
Despair as source (arrows out)			Despair as sink (arrows in)
Hope as sink (arrows in)			Hope as sink (arrows in)

Alchemy: More controversial is the implication that the process could be related in some way to that to which alchemy variously alludes (as noted above). Aside from traditional interest in that perspective, it is appropriate to note the seminal study of George Soros employing that metaphor (The Alchemy of Finance, 1987), and others which have followed, as variously discussed (Geometry of meaning: an alchemical Rosetta Stone? 2013; Eliciting a universe of meaning from nothing through alchemical processes, 2013; An alchemical marriage? 2010).

Appropriately reflecting the ambiguity of any preoccupation with alchemy is its deprecation as superstitious nonsense in contrast with conventional disciplines -- despite their evident inadequacy in the face of current crises.

This ambiguity is embodied in the icon of science, namely Isaac Newton, whose simultaneous work on alchemy continues to be reviewed in the Newton Project, following years of deliberate neglect by science. Humorists could make much of the need for transmutation of "lead" into "gold" in a period of widespread "misleadership" -- and the absence of "goldership" (Emergence of a Global Misleadership Council: misleading as vital to governance of the future? 2007).

Rather than using "ambiguity" as a descriptor, Newton might be better understood as embodying "flow" between two or more cognitive modalities. In relation to finance, such flow can be recognized as the intangible circulation of confidence -- more tangibly recognized as liquidity (experienced in practice as a verb, rather than described in theory as a noun). Appropriate to this understanding is Newton's role as Warden and Master of the Royal Mint, as well as being president of the Royal Society.

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