Main menu
You are here
From cognitive exodus to cognitive home-coming?
Future Global Exodus to the Metasphere (Part #10)
[Parts: First | Prev | All] [Links: To-K | Refs ]
Home-coming? As presented above, the shift in emphasis to a metasphere perspective from any focus on spheres merits "re-cognition" from a cognitive perspective. It could be framed as a paradigm shift. The title of the discussion refers to a "global exodus", thereby suggesting a complex nexus of connotations.
It is somewhat amusing to note the exchanges in quest of of an appropriate antonym for "exodus" (Antonym of "exodus" English Language and Usage). Candidates discussed include "introdus" and "influx" -- after setting aside "introitus" and "introit", given their vaginal and liturgical ambiguity. Potentially more relevant however is the sense of "home-coming", rather than any inward migration. This offers useful connotations of "return of the prodigal", "rebirth", "renaissance", and "eternal return" -- in addition to any process of enantiodromia (Varieties of Rebirth: distinguishing ways of being "born again", 2004). The latter distinguished the experiential implications of:
- Cultural rebirth (renaissance, aesthetic birth, mytho-poesis)
- Socio-religious rebirth (birthright, destiny, reincarnation, social status, ceremony, ritual, group affiliation, games, sports)
- Psycho-behavioural rebirth (sin-to-virtue, changing patterns of consumption, conversion)
- Developmental rebirth (education, perspective, initiation, cultural creativity, individuation)
- Therapeutical rebirth (release from trauma, mentors, self-help, discipleship)
- Cognitive perspective (metacognition, critical thinking, philosophy, aesthetic sensibility, orders of thinking, systematics, orders of abstraction, disciplines of action)
- Experiential rebirth (operacy, flow, embodiment of mind, speaking with God, born-again, possession, psychedelic experience, embodiment in song, spiritual rebirth)
Terraforming? Such a home-coming is then to be contrasted with the excitement evoked by "going to the stars", namely imaginative projections with respect to the physical migration of humanity to near space or outer-space. That exodus is then reframed as a form of return to a cognitive home-land -- "re-cognized" otherwise. The shift away from a planet held to be "uninhabitable" is then not physical but cognitive -- however that can be understood as a transformation of perspective. Rather than any technical focus on terraforming other planets -- modifying their atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology -- the focus is then on the cognitive terraforming of Earth, namely the possibilities of engaging otherwise with its "spheres" to render it cognitively habitable.
The elitist fantasy of enabling the migration of the few to outer space locations necessarily implies the problematic condition of those who do not benefit from this physical transition. In cognitive terms this has been evoked with respect to any rebirth, understood in spiritual terms, namely the tragic circumstances of the "left-behind". Unfortunately that meme is currently relevant to the disadvantaged populations of the planet -- and a major driver for the migration crisis. This is despite the rapidly degrading conditions of the societies attracting such migration -- in terms of quality of life whether understood physically or cognitively.
The focus on physical exodus from Earth therefore merits recognition as a form of mass distraction or mass deception (Strategic Opportunities of the Twice Born: reflections on systemic camouflage of mass deception, 2004).
Cognitive terraforming? Given the imagination applied to the technology of physical terraforming, and its fictional representation, the question is how any form of cognitive terraforming is to be imagined and developed.
The simple default response is through the use of psychoactive substances -- a response massively employed worldwide at all levels of society. By contrast, the technical creativity applied to articulating the complex possibilities of terraforming the spheres of other planets merits recognition as indicative of the complexity to be envisaged in cognitive terraforming.
As yet to be fully explored are the possibilities of radical cognitive engagement with environmental categories and disciplines (Existential Embodiment of Externalities, 2009). These could be fundamental to a more fruitful strategic engagement with climate change (Weather Metaphors as Whether Metaphors, 2015). This argues the case for transcending solar illusion via a Galilean-style cognitive revolution. Such arguments suggest the necessity for radical engagement with an increasingly surreal reality (Cognitive Embodiment of Nature "Re-cognized" Systemically, 2018; Enveloping Development through Cognitive Enactivism: engaging with climate change by changing apprehension of climate, 2009).
Requisite cognitive eversion? The nature of a sphere has acquired considerable familiarity, most obviously through ball games. This has extended to understandings of global, most notably through images of Earth from space. The recognition that humans "inhabit" the Earth by "living on" a sphere is held to be unquestionable. This is the case even though through the revolution of the planet around the Sun suggests that, from another perspective, humans "live on" the torus traced out by that annual cycle (Imagining Toroidal Life as a Sustainable Alternative: from globalization to toroidization or back to flatland? 2019).
The assumption that humans "live in" three dimensions alone -- in cognitive terms -- can also be questioned, as argued separately (Ronald Atkin, Multidimensional Man; can man live in 3-dimensional space? 1981; Antonio de Nicolas, Meditations through the Rig Veda: four-dimensional man, 2003). It is in the light of such arguments that it is appropriate to ask whether any possibility of "living in" a metasphere calls for a radical process of turning the conventional perspective "inside-out".
The seeming impossibility of doing so is usefully challenged by the geometrical process described as eversion or inversion. However improbable, this can be visualized in the case of the cube, as illustrated separately (Inversion of the cube and related forms: configuring discourse otherwise? 2018). Equally improbable is the possibility of turning a torus inside-out, or transforming a sphere into a torus, as illustrated in the following animations.
| Animations of transformation of a sphere in relation to a torus | |
| Turning a punctured torus inside-out | Ring torus becomes a horn torus, then a spindle torus, and finally degenerates into a sphere. |
 |  |
| By w:en:User:Surot - English Wikipedia, Public Domain, Link | User:Kieff [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
As argued separately, such a process may be required if there is to be any possibility of reconciling the "headless hearts" with the "heartless heads" (Time for Provocative Mnemonic Aids to Systemic Connectivity? 2018). With respect to access to a metaspherical perspective, the radical nature of the cognitive process is suggested by the following animations of turning a sphere inside out in a three-dimensional space. In differential topology, this is known as sphere eversion, extensively discussed in the Wikipedia entry from which the following are reproduced.
A valuable representation and explanation of the Bednorz and Bednorz version (left) is provided by Ricky Reusser (Sphere Eversion, 29 June 2020). Screen shots derived from that smooth animation are presented in the central animation below -- in which a blue sphere is turned inside-out to reveal the orange inner surface.
| Animations of sphere eversion | ||
| Analytic sphere eversion | Screen shot animation of ruled surface version | Using Thurston's corrugations |
 |  |  |
| Reproduced from Wikipedia as described by Adam Bednorz and Witold Bednorz, Analytic sphere eversion using ruled surrfaces (Differential Geometry and Its Applications. 64, 2019, June) | Adapted from animation of Bednorz and Bednorz version presented by Ricky Reusser (Sphere Eversion, 29 June 2020) | Carsten Steger, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
With respect to the "magic" of the seemingly improbable transformation process, as further clarified by Ricky Reusser (Sphere Eversion, 2020), he presents a detailed animation of the particular portion of the animation by Bednorz and Bednorz (2019), from which the version (below right) is derived. The Wikipedia entry offers a set of explanatory screen shots of the original version, presented below as separate animations.
| Animations of ruled surface sphere eversion (detail) | |||
| Top view | Side view | Diagonal view | |
 |  |  |  |
| Adamb76, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons | Adapted from animation of Bednorz and Bednorz version presented by Ricky Reusser (Sphere Eversion, 29 June 2020) | ||
References to eversion do not offer any indication of the potential cognitive and psycho-social implications -- despite their challenge to conventional understandings of globality and globalization. Ruled surface animation is valuable in suggesting transformation of the pattern of connectivity of the global "network of externalities" into a network of "internalities" -- with "global" as then understood coherently through embodied cognition. This could prove to be a key to fruitful psycho-social engagement with climate change.
The animations are necessarily indicative of a complex cognitive transformation for which other links are usefully provided by Reusser relevant to both this eversion and the topic in general:
- Adam Bednorz: Sphere Eversion (a webpage with videos and DIY instructions using paper)
- Marcel Padilla: Sphere Eversion with Transparency: turning a sphere inside out (video)
- Chris Hills: Everting a Sphere (a collection of links and resources)
Provocatively it might be asked whether the fundamental attraction of sexual intercourse and its consummation is an experiential "exploration" of the "magic" of cognitive eversion (Human Intercourse:Â Intercourse with Nature and Intercourse with the Other, 2007). The possibilities of living "inside-out" or "outside-in" invite imaginative reflection, as with the following:
- Cognitive Osmosis in a Knowledge-based Civilization: interface challenge of inside-outside, insight-outsight, information-outformation (2017)
- World Introversion through Paracycling: global potential for living sustainably "outside-inside" (2013)
The latter presents the challenge in the following terms:
Metasphere as a psycho-social Dyson sphere? A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure envisaged by astrophysicists. It completely encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its solar power output. It is used to explain how a spacefaring civilization would meet its energy requirements once those requirements exceed what can be generated from the home planet's resources alone -- an immediate prospect for Earth-based civilization. As conceived in physical terms, construction of such a sphere far exceeds human capacity.
There is however the possibility that any design of the metasphere could be explored as a psycho-social Dyson sphere -- a psycho-social construct. This potentially combines insights regarding the sociosphere, the psychosphere. and the cognitive sphere. In this non-material sense, engendering it is far more feasiible as a process . This would be consistent with recognition of the central role of the Sun in the symbolism and myth of many cultures, most obviously with respect to insight and creativity. How humanity might dwell cognitively on the inner surface of such a sphere has been a feature of science fiction. Variants hypothesized include the so-called Dyson swarm, Dyson bubble and Dyson shell, in addition to other types: Dyson net, Bubbleworld, Stellar engine, and Niven Ring.
It is intriguing to note that the current design of tensegrity structures (sustained by tensional integrity) offers clues to the potential ordering of the networks characteristic of psycho-social organization -- with implications for engendering a Dyson sphere (Transcending Psychosocial Polarization with Tensesgrity: biomimetic clues to collective resilience and unshackling knowledge, 2021; From Networking to Tensegrity Organization, 1984).
The relatively simple spherical tensegrity (below left) is curiously suggestive of the form of a birds nest understood dynamically. With "nest" as a common metaphor for home -- and nest-building as home-building, a tensegrity is the indicative of how challenging polarities might be coherently configured as a "cognitive home", whether by an individual, a group, or global society. As one example, a celebrated early image of a complex tensegrity is a feature of a page on 92-prism tensegrity in Tensegrity Wiki where it is analyzed by Taffgoch and Adrian Rossiter (of Antiprism). The tensegrity can now be generated by Antiprism Polyhedron Modelling Software as indicated there.
Given the possibility of multiple rings to form a Dyson shell, the third animation is based on a "gyroscopic" configuration of the 20 rings of the Crown Chakra. With their traditional cognitive implications, these have been separately explored with respect to the strategic viability of interrelating 1,000 perspectives in virtual reality (Global Insight from Crown Chakra Dynamics in 3D? 2020). Also with cognitive implications, the 3-ring configuration of I Ching hexagrams in virtual reality (far right) derives from an exploration of cognitive coherence (Framing Cognitive Space for Higher Order Coherence , 2019).
| Clues to organization of a Dyson metasphere? Animations illustrating simple and complex tensegrity structures | |||
| Icosahedral tensegrety | Multilayer dome generated with Antiprism from 3-frequency icosahedron dual as a prism tensegrity sphere | Clues from possible "gyroscopic" movement of multiple "Dyson rings" (see variants) | Mutually orthogonal configuration of 3 circles of 64 hexagrams within a drilled truncated cube |
 |  |  |  |
| Imperfect reproduction of Antiprism animation | interactive web -- mp4 -- x3d | ||
Cognitive twist entangling space and time? The time travel meme has long been rendered familiar by science fiction. Far less known is the manner in which physics now recognizes an increasing degree of equivalence between space and time which renders such possibilities probable rather than a matter of fantasy. This has recently resulted in the formation of space-time crystals as a result of the development of quantum mechanics -- despite its theoretical obscurity and with implications for quantum computing (Pennsylvania State University, Spacetime crystals proposed by placing space and time on an equal footing, 27 May 2021; Keith Cooper, 'Time crystals' work around laws of physics to offer new era of quantum computing, Space, June 2022; Lancaster University, Time crystals 'impossible' but obey quantum physics, LiveScience, 2 June 2022).
Although the focus of such physics is on the radical transformation of matter alone, the potential cognitive and psycho-social implications are attracting attention, as exemplified by the work of Alexander Wendt (Quantum Mind and Social Science: unifying physical and social ontology, 2015; The mind-body problem and social science: motivating a quantum social theory, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 48, 2018, 2).
The pandemic and its consequences have highlighted widespread concern with the increasingly elusive possibility of conditions returning to "normal". This is now framed as "the light at the end of the tunnel". Recognition that it is becoming unreasonable to expect to return to that old "normal" -- whether or not that is desirable -- discussion has however shifted to understanding the nature of the so-called "new normal" (The New Normal â-- what needs to be different than before? UNESCO Futures of Education; The New Normal and Coronavirus, Johns Hopkins Medicine; Hans Eicholz, Defining the â-"e;New Normalâ-" after Covid-19 will Require More Just Scientific Expertise, EconLib; Covid-19: What does the 'new normal' mean? The Star, 21 May 2020; This Week in the New Normal, OffGuardian, August-September 2021).
Space-time crystals may well suggest the possibility of metaphorical clues to viable global governance of the surreal, as argued separately (Enabling the "New Normal" through "Renormalization" , 2021):
Mysterious hole enabling "home-coming": A contrast was made above between the process of exodus from an increasingly uninhabitable planet and a complementary home-coming into a metasphere. The animations above usefully frame the role of a hole in enabling the seemingly improbable transformation from one form to another (Mistaken recognition of holes repressed by a global focus? 2019)
From a cognitive perspective, there is then a case for clarifying the mysterious nature of any such hole as in the remarkable exploration by Roberto Casati and Achille C. Varzi (Holes and Other Superficialities, 1994) -- with respect to the borderlines of metaphysics, everyday geometry, and the theory of perception (reviewed by Steven A. Gross, What's in a Hole? The Harvard Review of Philosophy, 1994). They seek to answer two basic questions: Do holes really exist? And if so, what are they, as queried in an extensive entry on holes in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
It is therefore intriguing to note the importance to the culture of the Roman Empire of the hole understood as enabling entry into the underworld of Hades -- the point of entry now claimed by archaeologists to be at Baiae in Italy (Robert F. Paget, In the Footsteps of Orpheus: the story of the finding and identification of the lost entrance to Hades, the Oracle of the Dead, the River Styx and the Infernal Regions of the Greeks, 1967).
This usefully frames the question of how a netherworld merits integration into modern governance (Cognitive embodiment of an "underworld" into governance, 2010). The question is especially pertinent given the continuing recognition of the role of evil by the highest authorities (Ensuring Dynamics of Sustainability by Appreciative Recognition of Evil , 2022). Understood otherwise, the cognitive challenge can be framed as Embracing error and the netherworld (2014) or as the Incorporation of evil into models of requisite subtlety(2022).
With "introitus" proposed as one antonym of "exodus" (as noted above), the mysterious nature of the requisite hole can be explored in terms of its vaginal connotations in the light insights from the sciences and the humanities regarding any form of renaissance (Engendering Invagination and Gastrulation of Globalization, 2010). Are the animations above, variously framing a hole, suggestive of the cognitive nature of the "birth channel" with which home-coming might be associated?
The process of home-coming also invites interpretation in the light of the symbolic significance -- as a strange attractor -- associated with sacred places like Jerusalem, especially when understood in terms of the mysterious nature of singularities (Jerusalem as a Symbolic Singularity: comprehending the dynamics of hyperreality as a challenge to conventional two-state reality, 2017). As noted in the latter, further insight is offered by use of "meta-", as in consideration of Jerusalem in terms of meta-cognition (36,600), meta-logic (3,850), meta-theory (10,700), meta-epistemology (1,440) meta-discourse (4,240), meta-design, meta-dialogue (213), meta-language (24,000), meta-organization (419,000) or meta-framework (916) -- in addition to meta-physics (401,000). The figures are those of unfiltered web search results at the time of writing for: Jerusalem metacognition, etc. These include studies by institutes based in Jerusalem -- potentially misleadingly.
The contrast has been made above between imaginative aspiration to exodus by space travel and a cognitive analogue as yet far from being appropriately explored. Metaphor offers one insight, as does abstraction. More curious is any cognitive analogue to the familiarity with the process of being "beamed up", as widely popularized by Star Trek. A contrasting understanding is provided by the eschatological insight of evangelists into the process of rapture. A distinctive perspective is offered by the possibility of beaming oneself both "up" and "down" -- effectively alternating between physical reality and that of the metaphere (Living as an Imaginal Bridge between Worlds, 2011). In terms of the aesthetics of liminality, this could be described as being "betwixt and between".
Memorable "location" of the metasphere? The arguments above help to frame the question as to "where" the metasphere could be meaningfully understood to be located -- especially since it is "otherwise" rather than "elsewhere". The question can be explored in the light of a clarification by Ralph Abraham:
For Plato and his followers there was a parallel universe in which mathematics resides, now and forever. But for the philosophical phenomenologists of the 19th and 20thcenturies, mathematics is a cultural artifact, in coevolution with the human mindand culture... But since the computer graphic revolution of the 1960s, new branches of contemporary mathematics -- such as chaos theory and fractal geometry -- have come to light. Fractal structures -- having a long and unquestioned existence before being introduced into the visual realm and hermeneutics of human apprehension and discussion -- have complicated the arguments. In this 21st century, a similar conundrum has emerged following the psychedelic revolution: what is the location and origin of the psychedelic state of consciousness? And taking these two questions in hand, what is the relationship of these two parallel universes? (Mathematics and Mysticism , 2015)
For Abraham, the dialectic of these two opposing views is essentially unresolvable, raising the question of where mathematics comes from. Citing the neurophenomenological study by George Lakoff and Rafael E. Núñez (Where Mathematics Comes From: how the embodied mind brings mathematics into being, 2000), Abraham examines these questions from the perspective of Neoplatonic cosmology, and from the viewpoint of personal experience with this cosmological model.
Given the cognitive interplay between sphere and torus as described above, one memorable approach to positioning the metasphere is the familiar rolling ball fountain (or rotating ball fountain) of which there are many images on the web (typically of commercial products, inhibiting reproduction of their images). Such devices use a hidden source of water to ensure the seemingly improbable rotation of a very heavy stone ball, suggested by the image on the left below. Variants take the form of rotating ring fountains.
As a mnemonic aid, the first wire frame perspective suggests a comprehensible manner in which the rotation is achieved. However the second perspective on the same model (a side view) indicates how that understanding is flawed.
| Screen shots of animation of rolling ball fountain exercise in indication of memorable "location" of the metasphere | ||
| Solid variant | Wire frame variant I | Wire frame variant II |
 |  |  |
| Adaptation of model kindly developed by Sergey Bederov of Cortona3D. Separate interactive 3D version enables switching between variants | ||
Another approach is to benefit from cognitive insights into the organization of music by the human brain as patterns of tones, as clarified by the work of Dmitri Tymoczko relating music and geometry (A Geometry of Music: harmony and counterpoint in the extended common practice, 2011; The Geometry of Musical Chords, Science, 313, 2006). The organization of tones in musical tuning and harmony has long been been explored in terms of the Tonnetz (a tone-network), namely a conceptual lattice diagram representing tonal space. Tymoczko has developed his understanding through its generalization (The Generalized Tonnetz, Journal of Music Theory, 56, 2012. 1). The central animation below is an adaptation of its representation as a torus by David Bulger -- with the addition of a sphere to suggest the manner in which the metasphere may be engendered through musical connectivity (Tone-of-voice insights from music and the organization of the Tonnetz, 2020)
The two approaches juxtapose sphere and torus in a somewhat simplistic manner, raising questions concerning how the sphere moves in relation to the torus -- usefully triggered by the operation of the fountains mentioned. The animation on the right suggests that the metasphere might well be understood as a "metatorus" -- through the interlocking of two tori (with access to an interactive 3D version). It is such a configuration which might prove more indicative of psycho-socially sensitive global knowledge architecture (Enabling Wisdom Dynamically within Intertwined Tori, 2012; Interlocking tori: combining the two alternative representations, 2006; Torc-bearing, Playing-ball, Scoring and Nesting, 2019; Aesthetic reconciliation of contrasting toroidal metaphors? 2019).
Although there are various reference to "meta-torus" from an aesthetic perspective, noteworthy is its relevance to new forms, as discussed and extensively illustrated by Xiaofei Guo, et al. (Non-orientable order and non-Abelian response in frustrated metamaterials, ResearchGate, November 2021).
| Indication of approaches to memorable location of the metasphere | ||
| Toroidal view of the neo-Riemannian Tonnetz | Animations of interlocking tori | |
 |  |  |
| Adaptation of animation by Davidwbulger, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons | Model kindly developed by Sergey Bederov of Cortona3D. See interactive 3D version | |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
For further updates on this site, subscribe here