Embodying a navigable cognitive vehicle

Correspondences between Traditional Constellations and Pattern Languages (Part #5)

Beyond description: The dysfunctionality of current dependence on "think tanks" for strategic insight can be conveniently caricatured in the light of the classic outburst of Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets (1997): I am drowning here, and you're describing the water. As "water-describing arenas". the inhabitants could perhaps be compared with hydrodynamicists describing the eddies, the waves and the tides, consistent with the tank metaphor by which their operations are framed ("Tank-thoughts" from "Think-tanks": metaphors constraining development of global governance, 2003).

The strategic challenge can be explored through the recognition of the confusion and uncertainty of the times, and the inadequacy of conventional frameworks (Charles Handy, The Age of Unreason: new thinking for a new world, 1989; The Empty Raincoat: making sense of the future, 1995). Aside from the collective challenge, this is evident for many individually, as separately discussed (Living with Incomprehension and Uncertainty: re-cognizing the varieties of non-comprehension and misunderstanding, 2012; Living as an Imaginal Bridge between Worlds: global implications of "betwixt and between" and liminality, 2011).

With respect to the cognitive implications, for which the above image may be of some relevance, recognition of the dynamics of the cognitive geometry are implied by personal experience of a world described as turned topsy-turvy, upside-down, or inside-out. The upside-down condition has been usefully recognized and variously addressed (Thomas Homer-Dixon, The Upside of Down: catastrophe, creativity, and the renewal of civilization, 2006; Isabelle Robinet, The World Upside Down: Essays on Taoist Internal Alchemy, 2011). Some implication of the inside-out condition have been separately discussed (World Introversion through Paracycling: global potential for living sustainably "outside-inside", 2013). Such considerations contrast with assumptions that "global" organization can be achieved through simple consensus on a strategic "plan" (The Consensus Delusion: mysterious attractor undermining global civilization as currently imagined, 2011).

The case for some kind of shift "beyond description" can be made from various perspectives and experiential disciplines:

with respect to cognitive embodiment in movement, as variously argued (Maxine Sheets-Johnstone, The Primacy of Movement, 1999; Mark Johnson, The Meaning of the Body: aesthetics of human understanding, 2007)
in terms of "where patterns come from" in the light of the argument of George Lakoff and Rafael Núñez (Where Mathematics Comes From: how the embodied mind brings mathematics into being, 2000)
through recognition of the need for polysensual approaches, sensing rather than seeing (Strategic Challenge of Polysensorial Knowledge: bringing the "elephant" into "focus", 2008)
in the light of the potential of cognitive fusion (Enactivating a Cognitive Fusion Reactor: Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing (ITER-8), 2006)
as understood by the phrase "getting one's act together", most notably in a competitive setting, where it may be further characterized as an "inner game" (of tennis, golf, etc). A variant from flow psychology is getting into the "zone".

Embodiment of feedback loops: With respect to the effective control of any vehicle, what are the instinctive understandings that can be usefully cultivated? The case could be usefully made from the arguments of those advising on "advanced driving skills" in the case of an automobile, or the manner in which expert pilots (as required in aerobatics or "dogfighting") recognize the distinctive capacities on which they are dependent. The term frequently used in reference to this is "feel".

The key question is the nature of the cognitive engagement with feedback loops as exemplified by the classic expression "flying by the seat of the pants" -- a requirement in skilled control of a helicopter and other craft. The understanding is also evident in the recognition of necessary expertise and experience -- much valued in certain contexts as being beyond conventional knowledge and its communication.

With respect to aerobatics, the point is reinforced by the extent to which this is specifically recognized as involving movement in loops -- in looping and in "looping the loop". A valuable summary of aerobatic manoeuvers is provided by Wikipedia. This distinguishes and illustrates: a Chandelle, a Cuban Eight, an Immelmann, Up lines, Snap and Flick rolls, and Loops. As noted there, five basic manoeuvers are distinguished and combined -- lines (both horizontal and vertical), loops, rolls, spins, and hammerheads.

Loops: can also be performed by going inverted and making the same maneuver but diving towards the ground.
Rolls: when the plane is rotated about its roll axis, using the ailerons.
Spins are more complex, involving intentionally stalling a single wing, causing the plane to descend spiraling around its yaw axis in a corkscrew motion.
Stall turns: (also known as a hammerheads) are performed by pulling the aircraft up into the vertical until its pointing straight up (much like the beginning of a loop), continuing to fly straight up until the airspeed has dropped to a certain critical point. It is also known as a "tailslide", from the yawing turn, which is different from the typical method of turning an aircraft in the pitch axis.

Movements, that are to various degrees equivalent, are evident in acrobatics, diving, some board sports, dance, and martial arts. With respect to the latter, given the fivefold symmetry of the icosahedron, of particular interest is the classic strategic text on swordsmanship named The Book of Five Rings. What is the nature of the experience of the integrative cognitive sense in that dynamic context, and how is it acquired?

Transdisciplinary vehicles: Of relevance to this argument is how such insights translate into the strategic initiatives required for traversing the domains and "terrain" of knowledge space -- namely as "all-terrain cognitive vehicles".

This can be explored through metaphor, as argued separately (Metaphors as Transdisciplinary Vehicles of the Future, 1991; Navigating Alternative Conceptual Realities: clues to the dynamics of enacting new paradigms through movement, 2002).

One example is offered by the set of aerobatic manoeuvers distinguished above. In a world characterized by "spin", there is a strong case for exploring a comparison with the so-called "manoeuvers" in dialogue, discourse and negotiation. Would such comparison offer insight into the experience of familiar movements within cognitive space -- especially by the more skilled? Would it offer insight into patterns of argument -- especially given enthusiasm for "formation flying", as conventionally used to celebrate a particular understanding of national unity? This raises the question as to whether more complex patterns would reinforce recognition of more appropriate forms of order. The complex formations of bird flocking, and the swarming of other species, offer a contrast partially recognized in terms of swarm intelligence.

Given a degree of common vocabulary, are there insights to be gained from the process of "stalling" in discourse and negotiation -- or "rolling over"? What indeed of the widespread recognition of "spin"? The feasibility and relevance is all the greater given use of "political dogfight" -- where this implies (at best) a degree of comparison with that between fighter aircraft (SkyMall founder Bob Worsley in political dogfight over Medicaid expansion, Phoenix Business Journal, 13 August 2014; Shot down... Charity forced to cancel airshow event after being caught up in ongoing political dogfight between Sinn Fein and DUP, The Telegraph, 6 August 2014; Political Dogfight, The Heights, 1964).

There is strange significance to the use of simulations of such movements in the testing and training of pilots and astronauts in simulators (NASA Gimbal Rig Mercury Astronaut Trainer; Spaceflight Tumbler; L. Stirling, et al, Self-rotations in simulated microgravity: performance effects of strategy training, Aviation Space Environmental Medicine, 2009). The challenge is one of ensuring appropriate cognitive engagement with flight dynamics in space or ship motions on the sea -- also discussed in terms of heading, elevation and bank (and formalized as Euler angles or Tait-Bryan angles). Testing highlights the ability to control a space capsule simulator under conditions of pitch (a forward or backward somersault), roll (a wing-over-wing flip), and yaw (side-to-side turning).

What equivalent might be imagined for eliciting skills in the embodiment of cognitive vehicles? Some indication is offered by the title of a work by policy scientist Geoffrey Vickers (Freedom on a Rocking Boat, 1972). Does the experience of (intentional) community life perform this role? Of value metaphorically are the conditions of "microgravity" in a policy context in which up and down -- being "upright" -- are ambiguously defined (in moral or ethical terms), if at all. What are the "acrobatic skills" involved in global negotiations? In metaphorical terms, should roll, pitch and yaw be considered the experiential reality of the Cartesian coordinate system with which reality is so misleadingly and simplistically associated?

There is considerable relevance, for example, to the current promotion of yachting and boat-sailing as a source of strategically relevant insight in executive training programmes. Clearly such vehicles do not traverse a static plane surface -- all is not "plane sailing" -- whatever the challenge of its "all-terrain" characteristics. Through metaphor, there is strategic relevance to roll, pitch and yaw -- most simply evident in "rolling with the punch" and "pitching in".

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Embodying a navigable cognitive vehicle