Metaphorical articulation of wave-language bonding through science

Encountering Otherness as a Waveform (Part #6)

The experiential examples above help to focus the question of how "wave language" might be more appropriate to the experience of the encounter with otherness and the nature of any associated "bond". The articulations relating to "wave" from physics indicate a higher order of sophistication and subtlety than has seemingly been devoted to understanding any experiential encounter or bond with otherness -- with the exception of articulations in literature and poetry, especially with regard to the subtleties of the romantic bond. One example of the latter is the following verse from a poem (notably given prominence by the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994):

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
(W. H. Auden, Funeral Blues, 1936)

Bonding with the other: Further exploration can also be partially framed by previous arguments (Marrying an Other whatever the Form: reframing and extending the understanding of marriage, 2013; Transcending Simplistic Binary Contractual Relationships: what is hindering their exploration? 2012).

The term "bond" has been extensively used by science in relation to molecular bonds in chemistry and more generally in materials science. Although readily represented diagrammatically as networks of linked atoms, such a conveniently simple representation does not correspond to the reality of the bond in electromagnetic terms. This suggests that an "electromagnetic" metaphor could well be more appropriate to the experience of some psychosocial bonds, if only under certain conditions. Ironically this might well apply to the bonds cultivated between those linked solely by telecommunications, most notably in a social networking context. Any link (or hyperlink) is effectively a carrier for waves of communications -- of quantifiable "frequency" and "amplitude" (if not significance).

This possibility is readily recognized in the common use of certain expressions regarding interpersonal relationships. Examples include:

feeling positive or negative "vibrations" from the other person
being "in tune" or "in sync" with the other person, especially in various forms of team work (aerobatics, acrobatics, etc)

The linearity of communication implied by any link or bond is challenged by the argument of Daniel Dervin (Creativity and Culture: a psychoanalytic study of the creative process in the arts, sciences, and culture, 1990):

In fact language, with its inherent capacities for tropes, paradoxes, inversions, oxymorons, double entendres, and the turnabouts of puns, has never been a linear system for direct communication of messages between two points; and in some ways these rich resources in language, which everyone draws on, may compensate (or overcomepensate) for our sense that direct communication is so often insufficient. Paul Davies's depicting the scientific universe as paradoxical, ambiguous, and surrealistic, evokes Jacques Derrida's deconstructing a literary text. (p. 248).

The "wave-like" nature of the bond is also characteristically experienced in the dynamics of communal singing, dance and sexual intercourse. Some would claim to recognize a waveform in auras.

Molecular chemistry: As noted above, the electromagnetic framing of molecular bonding is very suggestive of new ways of discussing relationships between people, between groups, between concepts, or between other entities. The possibility suggests even further extension to the set of chemical elements and the pattern of recognizable distinctions they suggest (Tuning a Periodic Table of Religions, Epistemologies and Spirituality -- including the sciences and other belief systems, 2007; Possible mapping of periodic correspondences into nested circles, 2012).

Electrical metaphors (section partially reproduced from Modulating Cognitive Transformations: electrical metaphors and semiconduction, 2012): As noted by Marlene Johansson Falck (Electrifying Performances and Brains that Fuse: metaphor and the cognitive function of electricity, 2005):

As is evident from my material, which consists of a large number of metaphorical expressions from the OED, CIDE and 20th CW1, there is remarkable consistency among the instances with respect to the kinds of experiences that may be structured by means of our experiences of electricity. Almost all the mappings exemplify the use of electricity to conceptualise people's actions or emotions. (pp. 52-53)

In an extensive review, Dedre Gentner and P. Wolff (Metaphor and Knowledge Change, 2000) discuss the subsequent implications of the widely-cited earlier work on comprehension of electricity (D. Gentner and D. R. Gentner, Flowing Waters or Teeming Crowds: mental models of electricity, 1983). Much of this literature offers insightful comment on the cognitive implications, notably for learning and comprehension (cf. John M. Carroll and John C. Thomas, Metaphor and the Cognitive Representation of Computing Systems, 1EEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 1982, 2; Aristotle Tympas and Dina Dalouka, Metaphorical Uses of an Electric Power Network, metaphorik.de, 2007, 12)

In the light of Freud's own use of such a metaphor, Don M. Tucker and Phan Luu discuss An Electriclal Metaphor for the Neurophysiological Mechanisms (In: Cathexis Revisited: corticolimbic resonance and the adaptive control of memory, Annals of New York Academy of Sciences, 1998). They note:

In drawing from the models of neuronal function of his day, Freud considered their properties as electrical, and theorized about their operations as involving the storage and management of quantity of energy. (p. 137)

In the daily organization of experience, the limbic networks seem to resonate to the motivational (i.e., personal) significance of each event. In doing so, they engage the consolidation of that event in proportion to its significance. Because the adaptive control is integral to the representational process, the phenomenon of "memory" could be redefined as "motive-memory." The significance of each event is integral to the representation itself. In Freud's terms, an event becomes organized in memory to the extent that it is affectively "cathected." (p. 139)

Curiously it would appear that there is surprisingly little effort to explore systematically the correspondences between electrical phenomena and psychosocial phenomena, whether to enable comprehension or as characteristic of cognitive processes and their transformation. As indicated by the reference above to "flowing waters", widespread use is made of the so-called hydraulic analogy, treating electrical circuits as water flows:

electric potential, corresponding to hydraulic head
electric charge, corresponding to the quantity of water.
eurrent, corresponding to quantity of flowing water over time.
voltage, or potential difference, corresponding to a difference in pressure between two points: the higher the water, the higher the voltage. Negative voltage could then correspond to having water levels lower than some arbitrary zero level.
resistance, corresponding to the degree of constriction in the water conduit
inductance, corresponding to a second loop of water that must be sped up or slowed down by the circuit and that resists the change in current.
capacitance, corresponding to a dam preventing water from crossing and allows a buildup of different water heights on either side.

The argument is also further developed separately (Use of electrical metaphors for comprehension of transformative cognitive processes, 2012).

As noted above, one of the terms most basic to transfer of electricity is "contact". It is widely used with respect to contaxt with others in social relationships -- consistent with the argument of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (Metaphors We Live By, 1980). It is effectively an unrecognized electrical metaphor for explicit "networks" of relationships, characterized by implicit "waves" of communication within them, and a preoccupation with "switching" from one otherness to another. This suggests the merit of seeking ways to map such networks into wave-like representations -- perhaps replacing individual linear links by sine curves of a frequency and amplitude indicative commensurate with the communication process along the link (or the use of animated simulations).

It is appropriate to explore whether "wave language" would then offer a richer context within which to transcend the binary limitations of "switching" between one opportunity and another, as separately discussed (Recontextualizing Social Problems through Metaphor: transcending the 'switch' metaphor, 1990). This could allow for more conscious attention to the wave-like dynamics which are "hidden" to a degree in patterns of relationships described overly simplistically as "networks". It could help to transcend the constraints of relationships between "contacts" governed by "agreement" versus "disagreement" (Transcending Simplistic Binary Contractual Relationships: what is hindering their exploration? 2012).

Matching patterns in relationship communication (section partially reproduced from Modulating Cognitive Transformations: electrical metaphors and semiconduction, 2012): Anticipating the argument to follow, it is appropriate to note a degree of recognition from an electrical perspective between switching and the Chinese denotation of yin-yang (Ian Wright and Rob Newman, Electrical or photonic ying and yang of switching, Lightwave, 18, 2001, 6; Ting Cao, Stephen Blackburn, et al. The Yin and Yang of Power and Performance for Asymmetric Hardware and Managed Software, National Science Foundation of China, 2012).

This "yin-yang" switching perspective is especially striking in relation to the widely used Smith Chart, invented by the electrical engineer Phillip H. Smith (and independently by Kaneyuki Kurokawa, a Japanese engineer). This is a graphical aid for electrical and electronics engineers specializing in radio frequency engineering to assist in solving problems with transmission lines and matching circuits. A generalized 3D Smith Chart based on the extended complex plane (Riemann sphere) and inversive geometry has recently been proposed (as discussed below). Using the 2D chart, Randy Rhea notes:

Any impedance with a positive real part may be displayed on the standard, unity radius Smith chart. The horizontal line is pure resistance. Circles with a center on this line are constant resistance. Arcs converging at center right are constant reactance. The top half of the chart is inductive and the bottom half is capacitive. (The Yin-Yang of Matching, High Frequency Electronics, Part 1: Basic Matching Concepts, March 2006, Part 2: Practical Matching Techniques, April 2006):

Rhea explores the matching of both real and complex impedances in networks. Of potential relevance to social networks? At a single frequency, any positive-real complex impedance can be matched to any other positive-real complex impedance using no more than two reactive elements. He presents Smith Chart diagrams of matchable impedance space for 8 types of conditions -- whose resemblance to distinct features of the Tao symbol he describes.

Feynman diagrams: The possible relevance of Feynman diagrams to an understanding of interpersonal relationship dynamics has been explored separately (Potential of Feynman Diagrams for Challenging Psychosocial Relationships? Comprehending the neglect of an unexplored possibility, 2013; Credibility of Psychosocial Analogues of Feynman Diagrams: cognitive engagement with challenging visualization, 2013). There the fundamental role played by Feynman diagrams in providing a common language through which the mathematical complexity of fundamental physics can be succinctly implied -- in such a way as to facilitate discourse, whilst avoiding any immediate need for decoding and interpreting the significance of the underlying equations. The diagrams were promoted in their final form by the renowned physicist Richard Feynman and have proven to be a remarkable medium of discourse over many decades, as noted by David Kaiser (Drawing Theories Apart: the dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in postwar physics, 2005).

Essentially the diagrams offer a way of engaging with complexity without being rendered impotent by doing so. Given their archetypal simplicity as diagrams, and the fundamental nature of what they are able to "hold", the question to be asked is whether some form of "Feynman diagram" would be of considerable value to discourse regarding challenging psychosocial relationships. More provocatively, the question might be framed as to whether Feynman diagrams could themselves be understood even more generally such as to encompass the cognitive dynamics of psychosocial relationships.

This possibility would be consistent with the cognitive psychology of George Lakoff and Rafael Nuñez (Where Mathematics Comes From: how the embodied mind brings mathematics into being, 2001), as further elaborated by Chris Fields (Metaphorical Motion in Mathematical Reasoning: further evidence for pre-motor implementation of structure mapping in abstract domains, Cognitive Processing, 2013).