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Decision-making capacity versus Distinction-making capacity: embodying whether as weather


Enhancing Strategic Discourse Systematically using Climate Metaphors (Part #10)

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It is curious to note the degree to which decisions are intertwined with distinctions. In the absence of distinction, no decision is required or possible. The issue is highlighted by confirmation bias (also known as "myside bias"), effectively obscuring the potential relevance of any distinctly contrasting perspective. This has been featured by New Scientist: When things fall apart: How minor human errors turn into major disasters (12 August 2015). It can be understood in terms of "conformity bias". The encoding used by the I Ching is explicitly designed in terms of distinctions, building primary distinctions (yin and yang) into an articulated pattern of distinctions.

The primary markers for such distinction recall the language of the calculus of indications of George Spencer-Brown (The Laws of Form, 1969). The result of this formal exercise to separate what are known as algebras of logic from the subject of logic, and to re-align them with mathematics, is the explicit, and extremely elegant logical re-integration of the observer -- effectively the decision-maker. His final chapter, entitled "reentry into the form" commences with: The conception of the form lies in the desire to distinguish. Granted this desire, we cannot escape the form, although we can see it any way we please (p. 69). It ends with:

An observer, since he distinguishes the space he occupies, is also a mark... In this conception a distinction drawn in any space is a mark distinguishing the space. Equally and conversely, any mark in a space draws a distinction. We see now that the first distinction, the mark, and the observer are not only interchangeable, but, in the form, identical. (p. 76)

Vital distinctions beyond dilemmas: A valuable approach to strategic decision-making is through the frequently cited challenge of a strategic dilemma, as in the case of climate change, refugees, jobs vs. development, and the like. If climate change is more than a strategic dilemma, how might it be considered otherwise? There is some irony to the apparent relevance of a 5-fold perspective, given the manner in which the pentagram -- like the pentagon -- is occasionally a focus of suspicion, justifying a degree of preoccupation the so-called wicked problems of policy-making.

There is therefore a case for considering dilemma within the context of a pattern of little-known lemmas which are an increasingly subtle challenge to decision-making capacity:

Reflexivity and higher orders of cybernetics: So framed it is interesting to speculate on the relevance of such insights -- and the potentially "slippery" reading of the marks constituted by any hexagram -- with respect to currently emerging distinctions between different orders of cybernetics. These could be considered fundamental to the challenges of governance of a complex civilizational system endeavouring to navigate the adaptive cycle of resilience. Insights into more appropriate means of managing the associated connectivity and disagreement are now suggested by exploration of higher orders of cybernetics (Maurice Yolles and Gerhard Fink, A General Theory of Generic Modelling and Paradigm Shift: cybernetic orders, Kybernetes, 44, 2015).

These notably take account of self-reflexivity -- itself to be distinguished in varying degrees meriting exploration and recognition. As phrased by the authors:

  • First-order cybernetic feedback is typically seen to be associated with Newtonian mechanical objectivity. It is therefore positivist, centring on systemic objects being observed by some external objective observer
  • Second-order cybernetics embraces radical constructivism, allowing for instrumental learning and agnosticism towards objective reality..
  • Third-order simplex cybernetic spaces should be seen to represent the observed and observing systems together forming another system, from which a new relativistic interactive worldview arises from self-observing viewers that have self-observed worldviews. Third-order cybernetics is also characterised by the way it resolves undecidabilities, these being constituted in the logic of the present moment by the anticipations of the system.
  • It is possible to formulate a statement of fourth order cybernetics in terms of the higher levels of relationship between observed and observing systems.... However, a more pragmatic and satisfactory... approach allows one to respond to the variety in a complex situation with an invariant generic construct more capable of generating requisite variety. Higher orders of simplex modelling have this capability since they provide new ways of explaining complexity by representing external influences as internal imperatives, thereby creating greater complexity for the immanent agency dynamics, but reducing undecidability. To explain the use of higher order models, rather than use observers relationships, a more minimal way is to adopt a concept of generic loop learning..., even if this redirects us away from... adaptability. Here then, fourth order cybernetics could be represented as triple loop generic learning (beyond the double loop generic learning of third cybernetics), referring to the way in which knowledge is not only acquired but also identified.
  • On the way to developing our general theory, the paper gave examples of first, second, third and fourth order simplexity. Higher orders of simplex modelling under complexity exist through the conceptual generic concepts that define them. This is the result of conceptual emergence, important to processes of systemic modelling. So far we have not attempted to move beyond fourth order simplexity, awaiting for new concepts able to generate fifth and higher orders of simplexity. However, we have shown that higher order simplex models can be generated through the use of recursion

Especially relevant is the earlier collaboration of the principal author with a Chinese scholar (Ye Zude and Maurice Yolles, Cybernetics of Tao, Kybernetes, 39, 2010). As noted there:

Here, autopoiesis is a term that can now be simply seen as a network of processes that enables noumenal activity to become manifested phenomenally, and in autonomous systems this is conditioned by autogenesis -- a network of principles that create a second order form of autopoiesis that guides autopoietic processes. Autopoiesis may be thought as a process in which virtual images are manifested phenomenally. Autogenesis provides a network of principles that ultimately drives autopoiesis.

Just as systemic understanding of arrogance can be explored in terms of the mysterious nature of gravity, it is possible that degrees of self-reference can be fruitfully distinguished from the degrees of self-satisfaction which undermine flexibility in collective decision-making.

Music as a key to subtle distinction-making: Whether in terms of higher orders of dimensionality, lemmas or cybernetics, the subtlety implied would seem to defy the comprehension of most. Clearly governance is most readily grasped and pursued in terms of binary logic, even if this results in dilemmas. The possibility of subtler distinctions can however be explored otherwise through music where distinctions are readily recognized worldwide within tuning systems -- and in the light of an appreciation of contrast, complementarity and harmony.

More generally the argument could be developed through recognition of aesthetic appreciation of correspondences transcending the logical difficulties of the rational mind (Theories of Correspondences and potential equivalences between them in correlative thinking, 2007). The argument has been remarkably developed by Douglas Hofstadter (Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, 1979). A relevant development of this perspective was made in his subsequent work with Emmanuel Sander (Surfaces and Essences: analogy as the fuel and fire of thinking, 2013).

Curiously, in imagining 4D polychora mapped in some way onto 3D polyhedra, the conventional significance of edges, vertices and faces needs to be open to alternative interpretation -- especially given the dynamic dimension and its implications for transformative change over time. As stressed above the issue of coherent comprehension of complexity then becomes fundamental.

It is in this sense that their proportions and axes of symmetry may be far more readily understood (by many) through sensitivity to harmony in musical terms, as indicated above in the light of the work of Ernest McClain (Myth of Invariance: the origins of the gods, mathematics and music from the Rg Veda to Plato, 1976; The Pythagorean Plato, 1978). The point can be emphasized in relation to governance (A Singable Earth Charter, EU Constitution or Global Ethic? 2006; Clues to Patterns of Dialogue from Song, 2011; Aesthetics of Governance in the Year 2490, 1990).

In terms of comprehensible coherence, there is then a case for exploring the degree of correspondence between the following, and the enabling role of symmetry in music and other aesthetic forms (poetry, architecture, etc). Aspects of the argument are developed by Tony Robbin (Shadows of Reality: the fourth dimension in cubism, relativity, and modern thought, 2006). In terms of memorability, it is appropriate to note that online gaming may cultivate sets of fictional deities of various sizes.

Correspondences in dimensionality?
"Dimensions"
of physics		 Logic Cybernetic
feedback		 Governance Religious pantheons Music
Pitch classes (notes) per scale
1   1st order dictatorship
imperialism; hegemony		 Monotheism

monotonic: used in liturgy, and for effect
2 dilemma 2nd order 2-party: duumvirate God vs. Satan ditonic: prehistoric music
3: space trilemma 3rd order 3-party; triumvirate; troika Trinitarianism tritonic: prehistoric music
4: spacetime tetralemms 4th order   Systems of four gods tetratonic: prehistoric music
5: branes pentalemma 5th order Group of 5 5 Dhyani Buddhas pentatonic: common in folk and oriental music
6 hexalemma      

hexatonic: common in Western folk music
7 heptalemma   Group of 7   heptatonic: most common in modern Western scale
8 octalemma   Group of 8 8-fold way of Buddhism

octatonic: in jazz and modern classical music
10: spacetime (string theory)     Decemviri    
11: supergravity (M-theory)          
12:     Quorum of the Twelve Dodekatheon; / Dii Consentes 12 Tribes of Israel, 12 Apostles, 12 Imams dodecaphony
      Group of 20    
26: superstring theory     Vigintisexviri    
"Many": monster symmetry group polylemma   multi-party; oligopoly pantheons (Hindu, etc)  

Variously explicit and implicit in the above arguments are the cognitive implications of increasing degrees of existential self-reference implied by increasing dimensionality. This can be speculatively explored up to a 20-fold distinction (Distinguishing Levels of Declarations of Principles, 1980).

Compactification and "cognitive intensionality": As queried above, why is it assumed that the challenges of global governance can be fruitfully addressed within the framework of a 3-dimensional worldview? Why is it legitimate that physics should argue the need for 26 dimensions (Ji-Huan He, et al., Twenty-six dimensional polytope and high energy spacetime physics? 2006)? The latter presents the geometrical forms and the combinatorial properties of higher dimensional polytopes for the dimensions from n = 4 to n = 12 as well n = 26.

Fundamental to any argument with an emphasis on recognition of patterns of numbers, is the case made from a cognitive psychological perspective by George Lakoff and Rafael Núñez (Where Mathematics Comes From: how the embodied mind brings mathematics into being, 2000) -- further to Lakoff's earlier collaboration with Mark Johnson (Philosophy In The Flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought, 1999). In the former work, considerable emphasis is placed on the role of metaphor in mathematics. Given the arguments for cognitive embodiment by Lakoff, and separately by his co-author (Mark Johnson, The Meaning of the Body: aesthetics of human understanding, 2007), a further thread meriting exploration is that of structural morphogenesis as understood experientially -- notably in the light of the semiophysics of Rene Thom ***, as separately discussed (Reframing the Dynamics of Engaging with Otherness: triadic correspondences between Topology, Kama Sutra and I Ching, 2011).

Despite the deprecation of cognitive subtlety by physics -- however challenged by the role of consciousness with respect to observation -- there is increasing recognition of issues of self-reference and reflexivity (Hofstadter, 1979; Hilary Lawson, Reflexivity: the post-modern predicament, 1985). This is of particular concern in the higher orders of cybernetics explored by Yolles and Fink (2015). The issue may be related to the locus of the "extra dimensions" by which physics is rightly embarrassed. Understood in terms of compactification, they are understood to be "curled up" in some special way (Curling Up Extra Dimensions in String Theory; How can one imagine curled up dimensions?).

A relevant conjecture is offered in this respect by Arthur Young (The Geometry of Meaning, 1976):

If one thinks of normal time as being very long (even if not infinite), then inverse time (1/T) would be very short -- eternity in an instant. In the photon, it has long been known that the energy is inversely proportional to time (h=ET). This implies that in an "anti" world there might be an unlimited amount of energy in an instant of time, reversing our normal relationship between size and importance. The compaction of time would give it the character of omnipresence -- not going "backward" in time, away from the present, but instead going more deeply into the present. (p. 81)

Are there dimensions of governance and climate change which merit description in terms of being intensively "curled up"? (World Introversion through Paracycling: global potential for living sustainably "outside-inside", 2013). However inadvertent, this may be the essential implication of an interpretation of the title of the compilation by Stephen Hawking (The Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of: the most astounding papers of quantum physics -- and how they shook the scientific world, 2011).

Given the implications of dice for decision-making, with its game-playing implications, it is ironically appropriate that the dice capable of enabling decisions in a full spectrum of dimensions have been described and remarkably illustrated by Jonathan Bowers (Dice of the Dimensions; Four Dimensional Dice Up To Twenty Sides). The articulation notably makes use of the acronyms he has promoted for polychora.

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