Engaging with aesthetic and design constraints

Annexing the World as the Deal of the Century (Part #7)

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Biomimicry and technomimicry: One possible approach is to recognize the extent to which one has acquired what amounts to a wreck -- a planetary society in the messiest of conditions, namely one's very own world (Having Bought into a Wreck -- What Now? Cognitive challenges of embodying reality otherwise, 2018). The wreck lends itself to description with Donald Trump's own adjective (Earth as a Shithole Planet -- from a Universal Perspective? Understanding why there are no extraterrestrial visitors, 2018).

In the innovatory spirit imposed on Cuba, how can one then use the components of the wreck to fashion a more viable vehicle? A valuable clue is provided both by biomimicry and technomimicry:

• biomimicry in deriving inspiration from the biosphere as it decays even further,
• technomimicry in the light of all the creative thinking that has been applied to the development of technical devices of every kind.

Rather than focusing on the goal of flight, as was the case of biomimicry in the development of aircraft -- the development of those same aircraft (as a pattern) can itself provide a source of inspiration, as was the case of the helicopter (Engendering a Psychopter through Biomimicry and Technomimicry: insights from the process of helicopter development, 2011). Rocketry can provide similar inspiration (Towards an Astrophysics of the Knowledge Universe: from astronautics to noonautics? 2006). The approach has been most notably elaborated by Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander (Surfaces and Essences: analogy as the fuel and fire of thinking, 2013). That focus on analogy is complemented by that on correspondences (Theories of Correspondences -- and potential equivalences between them in correlative thinking, 2007)

Rocketry, and getting into orbit, offer similar inspiration -- as with going to the Moon. These are effectively exploited in the image building justification for the space race as an indicator of "being great again". In a world obsessed with sex, recognized as fundamental to marketing, the Freudian connotations merit recognition as recently recalled with respect to the views of the poet W. H. Auden (Edward Mendelson, 'So Huge a Phallic Triumph': Why Apollo Had Little Appeal for Auden, New York Review of Books, 12 August 2019).

In a period of widespread concern with sexual harassment and rape, the current enthusiasm of the USA, Russia, China, France and India for a "space force" by male-dominated institutions merits similar consideration. The drama of the process is attractive and enthralling. More provoccative, there is much justification for recognizing the role of impotence in driving the demand for aphrodisiacs in some cultures resulting in the tragic loss of iconic species. Is rocketry to be recognized as a form of aphrodisiac for the "existentially impotent", however that might be understood?

Patterning inspiration: Given the characteristic difficulties of handling binaries -- right-wrong, positive-negative, and the like -- another valuable source of inspiration are the remarkable insights of Nikola Tesla into the rotation of magnetic fields (Reimagining Tesla's Creativity through Technomimicry: psychosocial empowerment by imagining charged conditions otherwise, 2014). Related insights can be sought from the design constraints of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor currently under construction (Enactivating a Cognitive Fusion Reactor: Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing (ITER-8), 2006).

Essentially the imaginative challenge seems to be fruitfully recognized in terms of patterns -- this follows from the early inspirations of the Society for General Systems Research. Rather than being entrapped by intractable nature of tangibles -- the specifics -- it is a case of recognizing patterns, analogies and correspondences, namely intangibles. This follows from the emphasis of Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander (Surfaces and Essences: analogy as the fuel and fire of thinking, 2013). The art would appear to lie in the recognition of correspondences (Theories of Correspondences -- and potential equivalences between them in correlative thinking, 2007). There is a peculiar form of intuition to be honoured (Patterning Intuition with the Fifth Discipline, 2019).

The major innovation in this respect has been the work of Christopher Alexander in identifying patterns that frame the "quality without a name" with which a "place to be" is associated ( (Pattern of transformations as a dynamic quality without a name, 2012). For him, a "place to be" in a building or a town is only viable to the extent that it is governed by the "timeless way" (The Timeless Way of Building, 1979). Alexander (and his team) identified 254 interlinked patterns as providing a language by which it could be framed. The approach could be extended to cognitive environments, as argued separately (5-fold Pattern Language, 1984).

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