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Discernment capacity in organizing complexity memorably
Connecting the Multiple Voices of the Pattern that Connects (Part #2)
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"Octave": With respect to preferences for organizing complexity, the contrasti in recognition of patterns remain unexplained -- for those deemed credible, especially with respect to strategc articulations. In the light of the manner in which tones and music have featured in the earlier discussions, a mnemonic device could perhaps be used for degrees of discernment, namely the notion of a set of "octaves", as illustrated by the following table.
In music, an octave or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is a series of eight notes occupying the interval between (and including) two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems". The interval between the first and second harmonics of the harmonic series is an octave. In Western music notation, notes separated by an octave (or multiple octaves) have the same name and are of the same pitch class.
The challenge in ordering complexity in the light of such an array is evident from the following:
- choice of a "lower octave" incorporating a limited number of elements results in each implying the greater number of elements which are not articulated -- emphasizing the role of interpretation (and potential disagreement)
- choice of a "higher octave" incorporating a larger number of elements ensures a greater number of more precisely articulated elements -- increasing the challenge of remembering such details and comprehending the organization of the pattern as a whole (readily ignored or simplistically framed)
In making any such choice the question is the capacity to discern distinctions, rather than conflating (or confusing) the possibilities -- possibly deliberately -- with the respective strategic consequences. Both choices evoke contrasting uses of metaphor to facilitate comprehension. For "lower octaves" a metaphor may be required to frame implication and the "richness" associated with each element. For "higher octaves" a metaphor may be required to suggest the relation to other elements, otherwise easily ignored. Both forms of metaphor may be questionable. Memory "management" in relation to complexity is a focus of research on "chunking" -- a process by which small individual pieces of a set of information are bound together to create a meaningful whole in memory.
Sound and colour: Verbal discussion of discernment capacity may be less meaningful than through the manner in which distinctions of sound or colour are made. In both cases a very wide variety of distinctions can potentially be recognized. A key question is whether and how a distinction can be said to have been discerned if it cannot be named. Of relevance to this argument is the number which can be unambiguously named -- with the associated cognitive, communication and strategic implications:
- sound: Discernment of pitch and issues relating to perfect pitch, framing a challenge of "strategic pitch" and the capacity to "hold a note" or any sense of "holding the line"
- ability to distinguish pitch is not fully understood; it involves some processing by the brain after a sound is perceived (Test Your Sense of Pitch, NIDCD, 31 July 2014)
- the ability for humans to discern changes in pitch as they listen to a speaker is essential for extracting meaning from words; pitch is so important to human language that the exact same words can have different meaning if the pitch is different (How people discern changes in pitch to extract meaning from language, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 24 August 2017) *** Varieties of Tone of Voice and Engagement with Global Strategy: alternating between a requisite variety of voices to engender coherence? 2020
- colour: Provocative issues are raised by the following in the light of the millions of colours which it is claimed humans can perceive:
- (Robert Kosara, You Only See Colors You Can Name, Eagereyes, 21 November 2011)
- wavelengths of colour that are easier to see also get names earlier in the evolution of a culture; colours familiar to one culture might not have names in another, suggesting different cultures indeed have distinct ways of understanding the world; colour names always seem to appear in a specific order of importance across cultures -- black, white, red, green, yellow and blue; the time needed for us to reach consensus on a colour name falls into a hierarchy that matches the human vision system's sensitivity to red over blue, and so on. (Charles Q. Choi, How Colors Get Their Names: It's in Our Vision, LiveScience, 17 April 2012; Hierarchy of Color Naming Matches the Limits of Our Vision System, Scientific American, 16 April 2012)
- there are countless named colours, but in terms of basic colour categories, there are 11 basic colour categories in the English language: red, blue, green, yellow, black, white, pink, orange, brown, purple, and gray. These basic colours can be combined and modified to create a wide variety of named colours. (How many colors have names? Quora)
- there are more colours than names; there are at least 3 million perceptually distinct colours. The Methuen Book of Colour lists, about 2400 names which means there are more than 1000 x more colours than names. This is because when we cite a colour name such as, for example, pink it evokes more than one colour (Stephen Westland.(How many colors have names? Quora)
Taste and smell: Similar points could be made with regard to the discernment of tastes -- as cultivated by those with "educated palates" with respect to wines (How can you tell if someone has an educated palate in wine tasting? Quora). Related insights are offered by odours -- as cultivated by those with an "educated nose" (Rachel Sarah Herz, The role of odor-evoked memory in psychological and physiological health, Brain Sciences, 6, 2016, 3; The Value of an Educated Nose, Vinesse, 26 September 2013). Recent research has shown that humans can identify more than 1 trillion smells -- although how many can be named is another matter.
The matter can also be explored through the number of people a person can "know", whatever this is variously held to mean. How "well" is another known? One upper limit for stable relationships is suggested by Dunbar's number of 150, although it is less evident how this may vary across cultures and comprehension of "knowing". A distinction in terms of "octaves" could be considered for mnemonic purposes.
Memory span: Another approach could be through exploration of the size of sets considered memorable in practice by those engaged with any such set -- as with species, music, books, celebrities, etc.How many "things" can be remembered and successfully communicated -- despite the challenge of aging (Lorea Lastiri, Does Your Brain Have a Memory Limit? Iris, 10 February 2023). More pertinent is the relevance to collective memory (Societal Learning and the Erosion of Collective Memory, 1980).
Such examples reframe the question of how values and strategic objectives are discerned and articulated. There is little consensus regarding discernment capacity in the examples indicated. The confusion is especially evident with respect to the pattern of tones. Despite widespread familiarity with music, supported by extensive research, this is most evident in contrasting appreciation of tuning systems. Of relevance is the challenge of the "colour blind" -- comparable to that of the "tone deaf" -- both with their global strategic implications (Group of 7 Dwarfs: Future-blind and Warning-deaf, 2018).
Set "completeness": The various examples frame the question as to whether a set is "complete" in any systemic sense, possibly to be understood as "well-formed" -- and how this may or may not be the case (as discussed below, for convenience). Issues in that respect include:
- lack of insight into what constitutes a complete set in a systemic sense
- a matter of questionable sensitivity (and/or preference), as indicated with respect to pitch, colour, and odours
- conscious or unconscious avoidance of the inherent challenge of comprehension of more complex sets
- "unsubstantiated" traditional articulations, highlighted for symbolic reasons -- possibly justified to a degree (post facto) through the criteria of sacred geometry (Embodiment of 108-foldness as ultimate spiritual challenge? 2024)
- the result of political compromise, as questionably claimed with regard to the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (Systemic Coherence of the UN's 17 SDGs as a Global Dream, 2021)
- resulting either from errors of comission (Type I) or errors of ommission (Type II) in statistical terms (Type I and Type II errors)
- promoted as a matter of convenience -- in the absence of lesser-known alternatives (Thirty-six Dramatic Situations faced by Global Governance? 2022)
- incomplete research on a set, whether acknowledged or denied
- subject to ongoing further articulation with a higher degree of specialist expertise -- potentially rendering a set incomprehensible for many. The periodic table of chemical elements is in many respects well-formed as a set, but remains open ended in anticipation of the discovery of elements beyond the 118 known in 2024. This has implications for its insights in a general systems sense and as a metaphor (Periodic Pattern of Human Knowing, 2009)
- challenges to recognition and articulation, possibly constrained by popular marketing uptake (as with "games people play")
- degree of appreciation of symmetry and complementarity for mnemonic purposes, potentially associated with factoring the articulation
- a sense of "goodness of fit" (Yori Gidron, Goodness of Fit Hypothesis. Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine, 2013), namely the effectiveness of matching (fitting) a coping strategy to a situation's level of controllability, in relation to adaptation to stress. More generally it could be understood as the sense of an explanation that "works", whatever that may be held to mean.
- in addition to perception of the set by distinct senses are the potential issues implied by its perception by different senses, especially given lack of consensus on the set of intelligences as "ways of looking" (Multiple intelligences as pointers to comprehension of multi-dimensionality, 2006)
- notoriety of individuals or institutions affirming the size of a set -- deprecating alternative perspectives by the less renowned or by those associated with other cultures and traditions
Comprehensibility and memorability: In contrast to the preoccupation of mathematics and other disciplines, the approach adopted here is to focus on comprehensibility and memorability, guided by the apparent number preferences in any articulation, as previously explored (Patterns of N-foldness: Comparison of integrated multi-set concept schemes as forms of presentation, 1980). The approach is consistent with the preoccupations of general systems research and the recognition of correspondences ( Theories of Correspondences -- and potential equivalences between them in correlative thinking, 2007; Correspondences between Traditional Constellations and Pattern Languages, 2014).
Of particular concern in what follows is recognition of any insight -- from the articulation of disparate sets -- into the nature of transformations within the pattern constituted by a set. Such insights may take a variety of forms between which it is assumed that a degree of correspondence may potentially be found -- if only understood in mnemonic and metaphorical terms. The transformations explored in most detail seem to be those between polyhedra and those associated with the Tonnetz. From a general systems perspective, it is assumed that the sense of "octave" suggests a degree of correspondence between sets of different degrees of articulation.
It is intriguing to note the psychosocial dynamics associated with the articulation of relatively complex sets in a particular domain. The dynamics are perhaps best illustrated by the history of the evolution of the periodic table of chemical elements (D. Michael P. Mingos, The Periodic Table I: historical development and essential features, 2020; Geoff Rayner-Canham, The Periodic Table: Past, Present, and Future, 2020). Equivalent "struggles" and disputes over how elements should be grouped and organized are remarkably illustrated by the many efforts to represent the "table" otherwise -- and more appropriately (Types of Periodic Table, Wikipedia; Mark R. Leach, The INTERNET Database of Periodic Tables). Corresponding initiatives are evident with respect to the array of tones, as noted below -- complicated by contrasting capacities to distinguish between them according to particular conventions and preferences.
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