Eliciting Patterns of Global Consensus via Tensional Integrity

Interweaving agreement and disagreement coherently with force-directed layout tensegrity

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Much is made of the need for consensus in global affairs, most notably with respect to major crises such as climate change. Efforts are made to engineer a form of consensus, as is evident in the current initiative of the World Health Organization with respect to any future risk to human health in the light of the controversially orchestrated pandemic response (Pandemic prevention, preparedness and response accord, WHO, 28 June 2023; Hell No to the WHO Pandemic Treaty, Global Research, 4 November 2022; The Case Against a Pandemic Treaty, Think Global Health, 26 November 2021). Of particular concern are the unforeseen environmental challenges which may be deemed to be a risk to health -- thereby triggering an inappropriate response. Climate change may be considered in this light.

Consensus? Despite the articulation by the UN of the set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN now intends to seek a higher order of consensus through the Secretary-General's vision for the future of global cooperation in the form of a report titled Our Common Agenda (2021) -- "to get the world back on track by turbocharging action on the Sustainable Development Goals". This is presented with a view to the formulation of an action-oriented Pact for the Future which is expected to be agreed by Member States through intergovernmental negotiations on issues they decide to take forward on the occasion of the UN Summit of the Future planned for 2024. Our Common Agenda builds on the 12 commitments contained in the Declaration on the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations.

Curiously it is far from evident what is meant by consensus and the urgent need for unity as variously expressed -- faced as it is by the recognition of diversity and its cultivation. How has this played out in the use by UNESCO of consensus decision-making? (Emmanuel Ifeanyi Ani, What Exactly is Voting to Consensual Deliberation? Philosophical Papers, 50, 2021, 1-2; Darcy K. Leach, When Freedom Is Not an Endless Meeting: a new look at efficiency in consensus-based decision making, The Sociological Quarterly, 57, 2021, 1; Claudia Liuzza (The Making and UN-making of Consensus: institutional inertia in the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, International Journal of Cultural Property, 28, 2021, 2)

Symbols? As an evocative inspiration for the peoples of the world, considerable effort is made to embody a sense of global unity and consensus by using the iconography of the globe in multiple forms -- as previously implied by that of the circle. It remains completely unclear how any such symbol "translates" into the practicalities of a world in turmoil with conflicting preoccupations -- a challenge carefully neglected. This difficulty of "translation" is similarly evident when a sense of consensual unity and harmony is articulated in the subtleties of music and song, as with the Anthem of Europe (A Singable Earth Charter, EU Constitution or Global Ethic? 2006; Reversing the Anthem of Europe to Signal Distress, 2016). The pattern is evident when the focus is on its negation, as in the much-appreciated painting of Guernica (1937) -- but seemingly without any concern or capacity with regard to any necessary revision of that insight (Reimagining Guernica to Engage the Antitheses of a Cancel Culture, 2022).

The geodesic dome tends to be featured as a global symbol on the occasion of world events. Partially inspired by that widely recognized geometry, the concern in what follows is with the relevance of the principles enabling that seemingly improbable design -- demonstrably inherently "sustainable".

Expressed succinctly, how improbable does viable consensus need to be in practice -- in contrast to the more comprehensible forms upheld as models of what is desirable. The status of cathedrals, temples, mosques, and the like, would seem to be inadequate to the challenge of the times -- especially to the extent that they embody world views in conflict with each other -- each deeming itself to be primary.

Tensegrity: The exploration here follows from earlier arguments with regard to that possibility (From Networking to Tensegrity Organization, 1984; Implementing Principles by Balancing Configurations of Functions: a tensegrity organization approach, 1979). Consideration has been given to such a possibility from the perspective of management cybernetics by Stafford Beer and his promotion of a viable system model and syntegration (Beyond Dispute: the invention of team syntegrity, 1994; John Coghlan, Reflections on the Book, Beyond Dispute: a syntegration in Switzerland, 2016). Some consideration of the possibility featured in articulation of the preoccupations of the Rio Earth Summit which gave rise to Agenda 21 (1992) as the precursor to the UN's later pattern of SDGs (Configuring Globally and Contending Locally: shaping the global network of local bargains, 1992).

The further development of this possibility follows from arguments regarding the relevance of tensegrity principles to psychosocial dynamics and the clues it offers to clues to collective strategic resilience and unshackling knowledge (Transcending Psychosocial Polarization with Tensegrity, 2021). Based as tensegrity is on polyhedral symmetry, such development follows from Identifying Polyhedra Enabling Memorable Strategic Mapping (2020) with its vital implications for collective memorability (Memorable Packing of Global Strategies in a Polyhedral Rosetta Stone, 2023).

Of current interest, with the development of web technology and augmented reality (or virtual reality) is the potential relevance of force-directed layout to the design and visualization of tensegrity structures, anticipated by its application to eliciting coherent patterns of preoccupations in 3D (Interactive Polyhedral Configuration of Preoccupations, 2023).

Artificial intelligence? With respect to the requisite "improbability" of strategic designs of relevance to a chaotic future -- and their comprehensibility -- the rapidly developing possibilities offered by artificial intelligence merit considerations. Given the alarm evoked by such possibilities, it is appropriate to note the AI for Good Global Summit (2023) organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – the UN specialized agency for information and communication technology – in partnership with 40 UN sister agencies and co-convened with the government of Switzerland.

The ITU is positioned as the leading action-oriented United Nations platform promoting AI to advance health, climate, gender, inclusive prosperity, sustainable infrastructure, and other global development priorities (Artificial Intelligence for Good, ITU Council, 2023; Global summit on AI takes action to ensure artificial intelligence benefits humanity, ITU, 20 June 2023; ITU Statement on the closing of the 2023 AI for Good Global Summit, 7 July 2023). A valuable contextual perspective on the ITU initiative has however been provided (Ville Aula and

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