Transcending polar preoccupation

Representation of Creative Processes through Dynamics in Three Dimensions (Part #5)

Patterns of higher order: Such mapping shifts attention beyond simple polarity to threefold and fourfold patterns -- and to the challenges these may imply (Triangulation of Incommensurable Concepts for Global Configuration, 2011; Noonautics: Four modes of travelling and navigating the knowledge "universe"? 2006). Rather than being understood as triangular or rectangular "lines", they can be more fruitfully explored as distinct cybernetic feedback loops -- information flows -- or "learning-action" cycles in Young's terms. These suggest the need for recognition of a cognitive analogue to metabolic pathways, as discussed with respect to Engaging with Globality through Cognitive Circlets (2009).

The value of an icosahedral mapping is also evident through the manner in which it also holds fivefold and sixfold patterns, as indicated by the schematics below. Such patterns are potentially of a greater challenge to comprehension in cognitive terms. Related psychosocial implications can also be explored (Middle East Peace Potential through Dynamics in Spherical Geometry: engendering connectivity from incommensurable 5-fold and 6-fold conceptual frameworks, 2012).

Rotation of icosahedron into positions highlighting contrasting patterns
5-fold flow pattern	6-fold flow pattern

Cognitive implication in patterns: As noted in the introduction, the potential of those patterns -- as articulated and tested with respect to patterns in "external" material form -- thus derives from "internal" patterns of thinking. This perspective has been extensively argued, from a cognitive psychological perspective with respect to mathematics more generally, by George Lakoff and Rafael Nuñez (Where Mathematics Comes From: how the embodied mind brings mathematics into being, 2001). This suggests consideration of the cognitive locus from which Tesla's mathematically informed creativity emerged -- usefully to be understood as at the centre of a sphere whose geometry sustained his inspiration.

The nature of this cognitive locus -- potentially a self-reflexive locus of identity -- can be partially suggested by representing the fourfold modality (indicated above by three golden rectangles) as the set of entangled 3 Borromean rings below. This can be contrasted with recognition of the challenge of interrelating their objective depiction with the subjective identification with them as cognitive feedback loops (¡¿ Defining the objective ∞ Refining the subjective ?! Explaining reality ∞ Embodying realization, 2011). The entangled rings frame the locus of identity in relation to globality.

3D representation of Borromean Rings
(logo of the International Mathematical Union)

Framing the source of creativity? The challenge of emergence and comprehension of creativity "through" configurations of such cognitive functions recalls the so-called "puzzle balls" or "mystery balls" -- nested spheres carved in ivory, as separately described and illustrated (Chinese Puzzle Balls: the Rubik's Cube of the Ancient World, Oddity Central, July 2012; Stina Björkell, Chinese Puzzle Balls: a dazzling example of superior craftsmanship, gbtimes, 20 November 2013). Typically with 7 nested spheres, examples with 42 spheres are known (see the many images on the web).

Significance -- potentially of relevance to insight and creativity -- is attached to aligning the holes in the spheres (namely the holes through which the inner spheres are creatively and extensively carved, progressively). Suggestive with respect to the shifting pattern of charged polar conditions is the interplay of mythical dragons -- typically two -- carved symbolically on the external sphere. This recalls the widespread Chinese tradition of a dragon dance in quest of a precious pearl (Ernest Ingersoll, Dragons and Dragon Lore, 1928). Their interplay is indicative of the relation between any polarity and the emergence of transcendent insight, most obviously evident in the production of electric light, but with its subtler symbolic associations.

The following image (on the left), constructed using virtual reality techniques, offers a suggestion of the contexts from which creativity emanates -- as it is traditionally associated with the Sun. It is a form of emulation of the Chinese puzzle balls. The average distance from the Sun has been used to distinguish the radius of the sphere associated with each of the 8 planets. Many (interactive) animation features could be added to improve this preliminary version and increase the insight it might offer into creativity through the "alignment of holes" between "planetary spheres" (as suggested by the animation on the right generated with the Stella Polyhedron Navigator software).

Nested spherical representation of planets of solar system (an animated version of the image can be explored using a virtual reality plugin for standard browsers)	Indication of the effect of obstacles to emergent insight (as would be the case with rotating nested spheres on the right, having faces variously blocked)

Copyright and creativity: It is of some relevance to this argument to note that there are currently no images of such mystery balls that are free of copyright, and that the objects themselves would constitute a major challenge to copy -- even with 3D printing. Given the creative insight potentially associated with the innermost sphere of such mystery balls, it might then be asserted that: if it can be copyrighted, it is essentially wrong -- especially if its use is constrained as a commercial product.

Copyright as intellectual property may indeed imply an adequately detailed description of water and the possibility of communicating it. It is however completely meaningless with regard to the experience of drowning in it. The distinction was succinctly articulated by Jack Nicholson in the movie in As Good as it Gets (1997): Here I am drowning and you are describing the water. Is it global civilization that can now be said to be "drowning"? Higher orders of cybernetics address such existential sentiments.

Existential cognitive reality: As a cognitive modality, conventional science is unable to elicit or engage collective action amongst those existentially preoccupied otherwise -- and is fundamentally indifferent to their concerns. Conventional modelling only "describes the water". It is for this reason that conventional "first-order" cybernetics has so far proven to be irrelevant to addressing the global problematique, as separately discussed (Consciously Self-reflexive Global Initiatives: Renaissance zones, complex adaptive systems, and third order organizations, 2007).

The handicap is evident in the inability to determine from what cognitive context emerged Martin Luther King's influential phrase I have a dream (1963) -- despite the adequacy of the explanations of conventional science as to why this ensured his assassination. Which could be said to offer the greater sense of coherent meaning to the greatest number? Why is popular appreciation of the zodiac an embarrassment to science? Does science have any fruitful framework for understanding embarrassment? What are the cognitive processes avoided by science (Knowledge Processes Neglected by Science: insights from the crisis of science and belief, 2012)?

This strange inability to "re-cognize" the contrast between theory and practice, and to integrate them fruitfully, is evident with respect to theoretical explanation regarding the control of any vehicle -- whether a bicycle, a skateboard, a helicopter, or a space module. The need for "experience" is however well recognized, whatever that may be held to mean. Driving licences are not issued without evidence of the capacity to drive -- even though that understanding cannot be explained scientifically. The argument can be speculatively explored (The-O ring: Theory, Theorem, Theology, Theosophy? a playful intercultural quest for fruitful complementarity, 2014). How does science recognize its capacity to "encompass experience" -- whatever that might be held to mean?

Curiously this point is made otherwise through the evident imaginative engagement with movies exploring "special effects" -- defying the laws of physics as consecrated by conventional science -- in a period in which science is responding defensively to evident popular indifference to the focus it advocates. This raises the question as to why the imagination is engaged to such a degree by iconic figures like Batman and Spider-Man -- and of how their skills may resonate with intuitive understanding of a wider range of cognitive modalities (Kayt Sukel, What I'd ask Spider-Man, mascot of bio-inspiration, New Scientist, 14 October 2014). What indeed is to be understood by Arthur Young's "winged self"? How might it relate to the cognitive capacity and creativity of such as Nikola Tesla?

Main menu

Directions

You are here

Main menu

Search form

Directions

You are here

Transcending polar preoccupation