Conclusion

Sustaining a Community of Strange Loops (Part #5)

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The above exercise is essentially a failure -- and perhaps necessarily so -- when contrasted with the intriguing simplicity of the introductory verse in relation to the challenge of strange loops for collective identity. In terms of the musical metaphor," stepping through" a set of isomorphisms may be understood as an effort to demonstrate the possibility of "transposition of key" as previously explored (Paradigm-shifting through Transposition of Key, 1999).

Collective identity: The exercise raises various questions meriting consideration:

• whether such an approach is capable of eliciting possibilities for improvement, namely aesthetic improvement reconciling "Beauty" (vital for comprehension and engagement) with the "Beast" (of strategic necessity).
• whether, a "form of presentation" (as originally envisaged) might be variously associated with methodological phases isomorphic with the adaptive cycle by which humanity may be obliged to navigate the crises of governance to come
• whether the approach is helpful in highlighting the process of normative and prescriptive "emptying" (the ineffectual assumptions associated with the rationale of Quod Erat Demonstrandum) such as to open up possibilities for more appropriate questions for the future
• whether there is a case for collective effort to engender a cultural epic corresponding to the Mahabarata or the Kalevala -- and the significance associated with it in relation to humanity's future -- appropriately adapted to the challenges of governance and sustainability. In this respect the initiative of Franz-Josef Radermacher merits attention.

Integrative reframing of the whole: Of particular interest are:

• the merit of composing a mnemonic "ring of associations" rather than leaving elements simply as a "set" of purely logical significance in formal discourse
• other possibilities of framing such a pattern of associations as a whole, possibly in terms of :
  • magic squares as a traditional means of ordering sets
  • games of varying degrees of complexity, notably as ordered by patterns such as the Fibonacci series (Tao of Engagement -- Weaponised Violence and Beyond: Fibonacci's magic carpet of games to be played for sustainable global governanced, 2010; Cardioid Attractor Fundamental to Sustainability: 8 transactional games forming the heart of sustainable relationship, 2005). With respect to such games, a valuable distinction may be made between finite and infinite games as argued by James P. Carse (Finite and Infinite Games: a vision of life as play and possibility, 1994)
  • reconciliation of the Fibonacci series with a toroidal representation, given the use of that series -- as embodied in the marine nautilus -- as the symbol of The New Zealand Curriculum Framework. With respect to governance, its symbolism is a key to the Pacific-based Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability.
• possibilities of fractal organization of the content of such verses, consistent with their relevance to strange loops (Psycho-social Significance of the Mandelbrot Set: a sustainable boundary between chaos and order, 2005)

With respect to future organization of any university -- aspiring to be the epitome of integrative reflection -- how might the cognitive organization and dynamics of strange loops be embodied such as to enable transdisciplinarity relevant to the modes of knowing required by the future? (Metaphors as Transdisciplinary Vehicles of the Future, 1991). What might be the design specifications of a "University of Earth" (Towards a University of Earth? 2010).

Necessary "cognitive twist": Cognitive entanglement, embodiment and engagement, as facilitated by aesthetic appreciation and correspondences, raise questions regarding the conventional instrumentalization of care in respond to the needs of "others". Such instrumentalization is of course fundamental to the organization of initiatives of governance as currently conceived.

Seemingly missing is what has been discussed elsewhere as a "cognitive twist" -- characteristic of entanglement in strange loops. It can be understood as intimately associated with the process of enantiodromia through which "one" takes on the characteristics of the "other" -- however they may have been deprecated (Psychosocial Energy from Polarization: within a cyclic pattern of enantiodromia, 2007; Enantiodromia: cycling through the "cognitive twist", 2007). This may also be understood in terms of mirroring (Stepping into, or through, the Mirror: embodying alternative scenario patterns, 2008). The implications of the associated "mirror test" of self-consciousness may be used metaphorically, in the spirit of Lessing's galactic tale, as a device for imagining the future evolution of human consciousness (Self-reflective Embodiment of Transdisciplinary Integration (SETI): the universal criteria of species maturity? 2008).

With the arguments of Hofstadter, the cognitive challenge of strange loops goes further with that of comprehending their fractal nature through their powerful aesthetics (Imagination, Resolution, Emergence, Realization and Embodiment: iterative comprehension ordered via the dynamics of the Mandelbrot set, 2005). However such mnemonic possibilities are creatively explored -- combining musical, mythical and other aesthetic associations -- a major design consideration is how to embody strange loops into the outcome.

Given the extent to which the coiling of DNA may be understood as a strange loop fundamental to the reproduction of human identity, and the current preoccupation with genetic engineering, the question may be how to embody such formal complexity into memetic forms which ensure the reproduction of human cultural identity (DNA Supercoiling as a Pattern for Understanding Psycho-social Twistedness, 2004; Climbing Elven Stairways: DNA as a macroscopic metaphor of polarized psychodynamics, 2007).

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