Main menu
You are here
Whether metaphors for universal mobility enabled by cyclic pattern rotation
Weather Metaphors as Whether Metaphors (Part #14)
[Parts: First | Prev | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]
Models and "universal" mobility: Within this context, the challenge of exposure to models of reality elaborated in terms of the need for 10 to 26 dimensions, calls for the most careful consideration -- especially given their incomprehensibilty for a very high proportion of the global population. There is even a degree of irony to the fact that their comprehensibility is limited to proportions variously cited in relation to universal consensus or to discriminatory exclusion. That 97% are held to be in agreement with respect to climate change, and 99% perceive themselves to be the subject of exclusion, renders the possibility of global strategy highly problematic -- especially when the latter are expected to subscribe to the understanding and priorities of the former.
In these terms, the "universal" perspective which it is so widely assumed to be possible and desirable -- if not already articulated (requiring only belief) -- is as questionable as the geocentric view upheld by the Catholic Church at the time of Galileo. The response of authorities now maintaining any analogous view -- including that of M-theory -- is as dubious as that of the Catholic Church in the Galileo Affair. There is therefore a case for exploring previously unimagined cyclic dimensions with respect to any more fundamental solar analogue or to constellations of stars.
The issue would appear to be the meaning which any individual can give to 10 or more dimensions as a means of ordering daily life. What model of reality can an individual construct with such seemingly requisite complexity? How is such an M-theory to be constructed as a Meaning-theory -- or even a "ME-theory" of personal identity?
In this light, how to shift beyond a "geocentric" framework, transcending any particular "heliocentric" framework? Have many already moved to parts of the known universe with their locus and perspective framed by quite distinctive constellations?
Cyclic rotation of patterns: "wheels" and "propellers": For the individual, the sense of being embedded in cycles could be framed by any response to the question of the kind of wheeled vehicle in which the individual (as driver) can imagine to be seated. Physical vehicles offer metaphors for preliminary exploration -- whether in terms of riding a bicycle or driving an automobile. Popular imagination has been cultivated by exposure to the design of the pod framed by concentric spinning rings in the major movie Contact (1997).
The intuitive appeal is echoed in two of the polyhedral animations, most notably that of the Chinese "puzzle balls" -- embodying the 12 components of the cuboctahedral animation.
Basis for exploring puzzle ball nesting using superposition of 12 Archimedean polyhedra | |
| Faces non-transparent Video animation (.mov); virtual reality (.wrl; x3d) | Wireframe version of image on left Video animation (.mov); virtual reality (.wrl; x3d) |
 |  |
Models as powered cognitive vehicles: Further insight is offered by the challenging complexities of navigating a helicopter in three-dimensional space. The cyclic nature of the intangible dimensions of this process is extensively discussed in terms of learning/action cycles by Arthur Young (Geometry of Meaning, 1976). His insights derived from his role in the design of the Bell helicopter -- insights which he endeavoured to extend to the design of a psychopter, as separately discussed (Interlocking cycles enabling psychopter operation, 2011). The engagement with any such vehicle has been further developed through experience of piloting ultralight airplanes. Possible understandings are discussed separately (Characteristics of phases in 12-phase learning-action cycle, 1998; Typology of 12 complementary strategies essential to sustainable development, 1998).
Whilst the cognitive implications might be readily deprecated as of negligible significance, it is appropriate to note the insights from flight derived by Ludwig Wiggenstein, as discussed by Susan Sterrett (Wittgenstein Flies a Kite: a story of models of wings and models of the world, 2005).
This argument then suggests consideration of the animated polyhedral configurations (in annex) as meriting exploration as cognitive vehicles of some kind. The case of the drilled truncated cube offers particular insights in that it is used as a means of mapping and interrelating the transformations systematically identified and encoded by the I Ching as the Chinese Book of Changes. The polyhedral animation of these changes in cyclic terms implies a form of vehicle. The multiplicity of cycles noted further suggests that it is a vehicle capable of navigating a multidimensional space, perhaps to be understood in terms of hyperspace -- necessarily of more than three dimensions. Exploiting the helicopter/psychopter metaphor, the "wheels" then take the form of propellers.
Since cycles may be understood as potentially bidirectional, of further interest is the recognition that the stability of some helicopter designs may depend on counter-rotating propellers and coaxial counter-rotating rotors. The animations of the drilled truncated cube illustrate such possibilities, allowing such cycles to be separated or combined.
Regarding round tables and other quests for wisdom, the manner in which the 12-fold insight figures in that configuration (and the other animations), can be considered as a curious approximation to the 11-plus dimensionality of physics. Rather than the classical paradox of a house of many mansions (John 14:2), it might be as appropriate to recognize that: My round table has many sides -- some with holes in them, consistent with speculative development of the point (Is the World View of a Holy Father Necessarily Full of Holes? Mysterious theological black holes engendering global crises, 2014). Are blindspots a necessary feature of any model claiming "universal" significance?
The animations invite exploration of how changing (and interrelating) the rates of the various cycles in the animations offer insights regarding cognitive implication in the embodiment and navigation of such a vehicle. The slowest rates recall the meditative role of mandalas in contrast to the wheel/propeller implications of the faster rates. It raises the question of the rate required for "take-off", "ascent" and "escape".
| Screen shot of rendering of cyclic movement of parallels in drilled truncated cube | |
 | |
| Slower variant as video animation (.mov); access to X3D variant | Faster variantion as video animation (.mov); access to X3D variant |
Deriving energy from rotating polarity: In a spirit of technomimicry, the emphasis of the "rotation" and "pumping" animations suggests the possibility of using these configurations as a means of further imaginative exploration in the light of the fundamental electromagnetic innovations of the past century (Representation of Creative Processes through Dynamics in Three Dimensions, 2014). These implications derive from an exploration of the creativity of Nikola Tesla (Reimagining Tesla's Creativity through Technomimicry: psychosocial empowerment by imagining charged conditions otherwise, 2014). Of relevance to understanding of globality, there it took the form of a separate section (Insight into global dynamics through Tesla's focus on the sphere, 2014). Of similar interest, is the manner in which some animations recall the experiments of Tesla on rotating magnetic fields, with the possibility that the fundamental relation between positive and negative that he explored could be fruitfully reframed in a psychosocial context
There it was suggested that Tesla's renowned creativity might be fruitfully explored in the light of technomimicry, as illustrated by that of Arthur Young and as separately discussed (Engendering a Psychopter through Biomimicry and Technomimicry: insights from the process of helicopter development, 2011).
Cognitive fusion and the design of nuclear fusion reactors: In the case of the drilled truncated cube, as a form of torus, can the patterns of movements be organized to ensure the kind of stabilization currently explored with respect to the toroidal design of the experimental nuclear fusion reactor which is the focus of the ITER international project? The potential cognitive significance is explored separately (Enactivating a Cognitive Fusion Reactor: Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing (ITER-8), 2006).
Much can be said about a pattern of 64 conditions of change, and represented statically, as in system diagrams and traditional mandalas (Lama Anagarika Govinda, The Inner Structure of the I Ching: the Book of Transformations, 1981). Exposure to visual renderings of the dynamics of such movement facilitates other insights. Especially intriguing are the possibilities of modifying the relative rates of such movements, given the manner in which the structure is toroidal.
E pur se Muove? This is the phrase attributed to the Italian mathematician, physicist and philosopher Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) -- after being forced by the Catholic Church, within the context of the Galileo affair, to recant his claims that the Earth moves around the Sun rather than the converse.
The above argument raises the question as to what individuals and groups are free to imagine as moving otherwise in the light of an analogous cognitive revolution. Of greater relevance is the manner in which the vehicle for such movement may have quite distinctive cognitive implications for the navigator -- embodying it in ways which may only be intuited rather than subject to premature closure.
Recalling Galileo is curiously appropriate at a time when, in response to the challenge of climate change, the Catholic Church has engendered an Encyclical Laudato Si' (Praise Be to You). As argued separately, this too is notable for its asystemic rigidity regarding cyclic processes engendering climate challenges (Systemic Inadequacies of the Environment Encyclical, 2015). In its praise for the individual, the title does however imply an understanding of movement which may well correspond to the "universal" mobility offered by cognitive vehicles, as argued above.
It is profoundly curious that such intuitions may be most readily suggested by familiarity with climate and weather patterns (cyclones, tides, etc) and the associated metaphors they offer, most notably with respect to decision-making -- namely whether to adopt one course of action or another. It is in this sense that authoritative preoccupation with climate change may come to be recognized as mistakenly "geocentric" when a "heliocentric" perspective is more appropriate. Conventional preoccupation with climate change can then be seen as obscuring the nature of the changing decision-making climate with which people are obliged to engage for their own survival -- especially in a context of scepticism and deprecation.
Whether rising worldwide social unrest suggests that "climate change" may have unsuspected cognitive implications remains to be seen. It may indeed require that the dangerous rise in global temperatures and sea levels be understood otherwise as powerful metaphors of negelected processes.
[Parts: First | Prev | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
For further updates on this site, subscribe here