Dynamics between hypothetical and metaphysical holes

Marrying Strategic White Holes with Problematic Black Holes (Part #11)

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This argument exploits through metaphor the suggested correspondences between black-hole/white-hole, male/female and the problematique/resolutique dynamic. Each of the polarities can of course be understood through its tangible manifestations. However each is also as significant in its elusive, intangible nature -- possible more so. Each can usefully be considered a cognitive construct. This is especially the case with regard to the existence of the hypothesized astrophysical phenomena. It is evident in current reflection in sexual identity, irrespective of its physical manifestations.

It is then of interest to recognize that problems, as perceived by some, may be solutions as perceived by others. The resolutique for some may be the problematique for others. In this sense it is questionable to have associated "black" hole with problematique and "white" hole with resolutique -- with the further implication that the traditional male deprecation of the female as sinful could also be associated with black, in contrast with the male as white. As might be expected, the question of whether "black hole" has "racist" connotation continues to be the subject of debate. Clearly the issue of whether a particular strategic solution is "right" or fundamentally "wrong" is of related interest, especially when what is framed as a problem may well be a solution.

Any such sense of misrepresentation can be used to develop further the argument relating to a fruitful dynamic between those polarities -- fruitful intercourse of relevance to global governance. This suggests the possibility that clues to a more fruitful relationship may indeed lie in a more complex understanding of the challenging relationships in society between male and female, and between black and white. Some clues may indeed emerge from consideration of the relationship between the contrasting holes of astrophysics -- however invisible or hypothetical.

The associated paradoxes can be usefully framed by the Möbius strip (of which there are many imaginative depictions on the web). Although apparently extremely simple, it is potentially to be understood as a more complex rendering of the schematic above relating problematique and resolutique. Its advantage for purposes of illustration is that it appears to have two distinct surfaces -- whether understood as "black" or "white" -- but the twist in the loop is such that the two sides are continuous, namely the "white" is continuous with the "black". The form has the additional advantage of being reminiscent of various knots associated with romantic bonds or marriage.

Möbius strip

For a strip that apparently has two sides (black and white in this case), it is significant how difficult it is to depict a gradation of colour to indicate the manner in which the two colours blend into one another -- since the strip has only one side.

It is a form of this kind which can usefully guide and frame thinking about controversial distinctions which depend on perspective, as argued by Steven M. Rosen (Science, Paradox, and the Moebius Principle: the evolution of a "transcultural" approach to wholeness, 1994). Potentially of further interest is the manner in which it apparently frames two distinct "holes". Of even greater interest is recognition that the singular focus of "fruitful intercourse" (of the earlier schematic) can be associated with the central hole resulting from the fact that the loop can be seen as a torus. This central hole is invisible in the above depiction where it can only be inferred. It is very visible in many of the other depictions of the Möbius strip.

The form is also valuable in that it suggests how a perspective may need to be modulated as a consequence of any shift in point of view. Such a necessary shift is a common experience when moving around the planet -- or in male/female relations. The shift can be fruitfully understood in terms of "cognitive undulation" as a consequence of such movement, also to be understood in terms of alternation between contrasting modalities. The significance for individual identity has been explored by Douglas Hofstadter (I am a Strange Loop, 2007). The significance for collective identity can be similarly explored (Sustaining a Community of Strange Loops: comprehension and engagement through aesthetic ring transformation, 2010). Although such flexibility is a characteristic requirement of many occupations, it suggests the possible future emergence of what has been termed homo undulans by Daniel Dervin (Creativity and Culture: a psychoanalytic study of the creative process in the arts, science and culture, 1990).

The particular value of the reference to astrophysical holes is that they require a degree of disciplined exploration which it is difficult to deploy in the case of controversial psychosocial distinctions in which individuals, and their identities, are highly implicated. Especially relevant in the astrophysical case is the ability to address the complex dynamics of the "holes". These are not static but constitute major attractors in their environment -- exerting "pull". Such pull is of course evident in the relationship between the other polarities, most notably male-and-female, but also problematique-resolutique.

Another metaphor through which such polarities may be explored is that of the hemispheres of the brain and the lateralization of its functions (Engendering Viable Global Futures through Hemispheric Integration: a radical challenge to individual imagination, 2014). As the integrative bridge between the hemispheres,the corpus callosum can also be explored as a metaphor for the global integration of knowledge functions (Corpus Callosum of the Global Brain? Locating the integrative function within the world wide web, 2014).

Given that the categories through which the metaphors are explored are to some degree constructs of this period of human civilization, a further twist to the argument, and the nature of the dynamic, is the controversy between externality and internality, and between objective and subjective. This continues to arouse the strongest arguments (¡¿ Defining the objective 8 Refining the subjective ?! Explaining reality 8 Embodying realization, 2011). As noted by Bahar Gholipour, Up to 90 of your perception could be made up purely by the brain (BrainDecoder.com, 22 April 2015). In topological terms, the question is whether such categories relate more appropriately to "inside" or to "outside", whether there is continuity (as in the Möbius strip or the Klein bottle), or whether there is again some form of oscillation between the two points of view. Is the world best understood as inside or outside, or both (World Introversion through Paracycling Global potential for living sustainably "outside-inside", 2013)?

Such considerations frame the challenge of the locus of any officiant seeking to facilitate any marriage between contrasting worldviews. As depicted above the locus might be assumed to be at the cross-over point at the centre of the schematic. However from a three-dimensional perspective this locus is illusory and any effort to emphasize this association would be simply misleading and essentially unproductive. Potentially even more questionable is any effort by the officiant to be identified with the central hole, as evident in three dimensions. This endeavour would be consistent with the Biblical message: I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). The challenge of such a message is that it conflicts with the perception of other belief systems -- especially including science, which holds an analogous view as being "The Way". Silicon Valley technocracy and the world of music suffer from similar handicaps.

Provocatively it could be said that the effort to occupy that position is effectively to block fruitful intercourse between polarized perspectives, whether male/female or problematique/resolutique. The officiant then effectively takes on the role of a contraceptive. This recalls the many references -- in the blunt language of Australia and New Zealand -- to people and institutions being a "condom on the penis of progress". Given the controversy with which the Pope is associated in relation to use of contraceptives, there would be considerable irony to his being caricatured in those terms.

With respect to any "naming" of that central hole, with which fruitful intercourse of higher dimensionality could be associated, various alternatives challenge any occupancy of the hole by officiants:

• For the Tao Te Ching: The Way that can be told of is not an unvarying way / The names that can be named are not unvarying names / It was from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang/ The named is but the mother that rears the ten thousand creatures, each after its kind.
  
  
• For Christopher Alexander (The Timeless Way of Building, 1979, p. x):

  There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in a man, a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be named. The search we make for this quality, in our own lives, is the central search of any person, and the crux of any individual person's story. It is the search for those moments when we are most alive....

  To the extent they are alive, they let our inner forces loose, and set us free; but when they are dead, they keep us locked in inner conflict. The more living patterns there are in a place... the more it comes to life as an entirety, the more it glows, the more it has that self-maintaining fire which is the quality without a name.

• For Reshad Feild (The Last Barrier: a journey into the essence of Sufi teachings, 2002), the essential challenge can be expressed in terms of "removing the point from which we view".

These variously point to the need for any officiant, or any analogous perspective, to "get out of the way", rather than aspiring to "be the way". Fruitful intercourse is then appropriately understood as essentially self-organizing. The issue here is how best to comprehend the self-organizing dynamics between resolutique and problematique -- framed and enabled by the processes implied by creativity, imagination, fun and play. It is through these that individuals are engaged by the collective dynamic -- a dynamic echoed in personal experience, as explored by Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing (The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five, 1980). There is a case for continuing exploration of the systematic patterns implied by such distinctions. Lessing's speculative exploration of gender politics in relation to societal issues is a valuable indicator of how intercourse between male and female can function as a widely comprehensible metaphor of the challenges of marriage between problematique and resolutique.

The concern here is the degree to which inspiring creativity and imagination are significantly lacking in the reports authorized and endorsed by officiants. One would be hard put to document the imaginative "new thinking" they have engendered -- beyond glossy presentations for purposes of public relations. Similarly one would be equally hard put to identify the role of play and fun in initiatives from which these are deliberately excluded. A curious exception is the work by Victor S. M. de Guinzbourg (Wit and Wisdom of the United Nations: proverbs and apothegms on diplomacy, 1961). Few would however deny the extent to which the dynamics of the global community are characterized by game-playing of the least attractive kind.

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