Potential significance of DNA coiling for reframing psycho-social twistedness

Engaging with Questions of Higher Order: cognitive vigilance required for higher degrees of twistedness (Part #6)

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The merit of focusing on the nature and function of twisting in DNA is that it provides a rich natural template. It offers a sense of the degree of complexity that it may be required to master in order to comprehend how twistedness "works" in practice. It might also be argued that, as a process active in every human body and inherent to human life, humans may well have some kind of profound intuitive understanding of how it works and the "rightness" of such working -- however "twisted". Some of the very explicit dynamics of this process may also offer patterns for understanding how the inhibiting effects of "twistedness" may be addressed when they are perceived to be a constraint on human development.

Conceptual links, associations and perversions: There is a case for considering how human identity might be described in terms of a structure isomorphic with DNA. Argument have already been made for a degree of equivalence between "genes" and "memes" -- but perhaps not to the point of clarifying their respective roles in mainting human invariance and identity (see Francis Heylighen. Structure of Memes, 1994) [more | more]. It could be worth exploring how semaqntic links are made and broken, whether within the individual psyche or within a group. Such processes could be related to some form of replication -- notably the form of transzcription associated with traditional "word-of-mouth" transmission of secret knowledge. On the other hand there is a recognition of "perverted" links, notably associated with sexual innuendo and double entendre, as perceived by those on the straight and narrow.

Creativity and innovations: Since DNA replication may be understood as fundamental to cell replication and growth, there is case for consdering how an analogue might model human creativity and innovation. How do new ideas emerge to nourish the psyche? Could this be understood in terms of zipping and unzipping? Susan Blackmore (The Meme Machine,1999) explores the question of "dismantling meme-complexes" and "watching a meme unzipping other memes" (see Waking from the Meme Dream, 1996) -- which she uses as part of a meditative technique for "unzipping" (revealing) the illusory quality of the self or sense of self. Blackmore asserts: "Just as the design of our bodies can be understood only in terms of natural selection, so the design of our minds can be understood only in terms of memetic selection." [more]

Degrees of corruption: For those "going straight" it is one thing to speak of a twisted or corrupted mind (or morality), and another to provide formal expression for it. How might degrees of twistedness then be distinguished ? How "bent" or "warped" can a person be -- or a group? How is a mind, perceived as twisted and corrupt, to be distinguished from one that is more complex without necessarily being corrupt? Presumably true corruption is to be associated with particular forms of knottedness -- of a type that does not permit the untying or unzipping necessary for healthy replication? But, whilst "simplicity" of a certain quality may be highly valued, how is the creative twistedness of some innovations and innovators -- such as Leonardo da Vinci (left-handed, homosexual, use of mirror writing, etc) -- to be distinguished from corruption? Or is it the corrupt nature of their twistedness which somehow catalyzes the creativity that emerges paradoxically from it?

Organization of memory: It is curious that the mind typically receives information sequentially -- notably in the case of text and eye movemet in general. A comparison might be made with the topologically challenge of packing more than a metre of sequential information into a nanometre cell. There is an absolutely essential need for a system of folding and packing, and "organization" of some kind, that might be compared to supercoiling To achieve this the link configuration must be minimally modified -- giving rise to twisting and writhing. Activating memories -- to achieve meme expression (currently of concern in the USA in relation to the memetic threat of terrorism)-- may be associated with a process resembling zipping and unzipping. On the other hand it is understandable that pathology of memory and processes of the psyche may be associated with knots that cannot be unravelled -- as recognized by Ronald Laing (Knots, 1970) and in the "engrams" which the auditing process of scientology claims to "clear".

Packing into a "globe": The topological dilemma of fitting DNA into a cell might perhaps be compared with:

• insight packing in a integrated psyche as a consequence of an individuation process (in depth psychology terms) engendering a "whole person" -- characterized by significant non-linearity (otherwise expressed as the challenge of Sphereland for Flatlanders)
• packing of traditional knowledge into the coherent belief system of an oral culture with limited carrying capacity for collective memory -- in the conventional textual sense
• knowledge packing in an integrated global society as a consequence of the forms of information system foreseen for the emerging "global brain" of a knowledge society
• packing humans on the limited surface of the planet, where high density packing might be sustained by occasional localized unpacking reminiscent of transient zipping and unzipping (perhaps prefigured by holidays)

Perception of "evil": Fundamentalists of different persuasions claim to be skilled in identifying "evil" and the "coils" of the "serpent". There is a case for honouring their perception of "coils" as a perception of levels of what amounts to complex supercoiling. This coiling may indeed threaten those on the "straight and narrow" with unforeseen change. Framed in this way the question then becomes how to distinguish fruitful from unfruitful change -- a challenge dating back to the Garden of Eden. But is coiling necessarily associated with evil -- especially if supercoiling is such an intrinsic feature at the cellular level? DNA can only be "straightened out" by "denaturing" it -- transforming it into a form that is biologically inactive, and impossible within the confiences of the human cell.

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