Requisite confusion to engender an elusive functional literacy?

Psychosocial Implication in Gamma Animation (Part #7)

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Set against the complexity of psychosocial dynamics, how is the nature of any potential correspondence to a memetic code to be comprehended? Given the challenge of self-reflexivity, there is the probability that the result will not take the form of a "mechanistic model" (as suggested above) but is more likely to be associated with an element of paradox -- potentially requiring extensive use of metaphor. Expectations of "closure", according to the conventions of "old thinking", are unlikely to be expected. The manner in which Dawkins is himself embroiled in a one-sided view of the science-religion controversy -- as indicated in The God Delusion (2006) -- is indicative of the challenge to "objectivity", discussed separately (¡¿ Defining the objective ∞ Refining the subjective ?! Explaining reality ∞ Embodying realization, 2011; Conditions of Objective, Subjective and Embodied Cognition: mnemonic systems for memetic coding of complexity, 2007).

A valuable indication of the dynamics associated with both innovation and its comprehension is suggested by the much-quoted statement by Niels Bohr in response to a fundamental theoretical approach articulated by physicist Wolfgang Pauli:

We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough.

To that Freeman Dyson added:

When a great innovation appears, it will almost certainly be in a muddled, incomplete and confusing form. To the discoverer, himself, it will be only half understood; to everyone else, it will be a mystery. For any speculation which does not at first glance look crazy, there is no hope!(Innovation in Physics, Scientific American, 199, No. 3, September 1958)

Or perhaps, as expressed by Shakespeare: Though this be madness yet there is method in it. (Hamlet, 1603)

The extent of embedding within the dynamics, which it would be desirable to encompass in some way, is indicated by the following. Typically (by convention here) the focus of assertion and awareness (the "psychic centre of gravity") is in the upper-right quadrant with various degrees of conscious and unconscious interaction with the perspective of the other quadrants.

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These fourfold patterns imply a degree of equivalence which is not readily held through "categories", as might be suggested by the following

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Although seemingly abstract, the "confusion" would seem to be required to address the following problematic dynamics.

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In order to enable the requisite openness, it is therefore better to be recognisably wrong than to imply closure. The concern here is not to "crack the memetic code" but rather to explore ways of thinking through which adequate "functional literacy" might be achieved to engage with the psychosocial dynamics implied above. In doing so in what follows, the focus is on patterns and not on whether attributions within patterns are correct. The process should necessarily arouse disagreement. The challenge is to find patterns of self-reflexivity which can also embody disagreement, rather than invite agreement -- simplistically. The work of Douglas Hofstadter is suggestive in that respect (Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, 1979; I Am a Strange Loop, 2007) as separately discussed (Sustaining a Community of Strange Loops: comprehension and engagement through aesthetic ring transformation, 2010).

The confusion in the process is usefully suggested by the ambiguity of attributing phrases to particular positions in the above fourfold tables. There is necessarily always a case for attributing them otherwise. This recalls the paradox of the wave-particle distinction in fundamental physics, framed by the Uncertainty Principle. In this context the ambiguity might be highlighted by using Huxley's classes, as in the following.

Huxley's classes

Whilst the allocation of Alpha is useful, the "visibility" of Alphas (and the ability to distinguish them) raises questions. They are well-disguised by the Betas complicit with them -- and their existence is readily "forgotten". The issue is highlighted by the Delta/Epsilon case, since their condition is typically "invisible" from other perspectives -- and they too are readily "forgotten" and "ignored". They may be treated as "invisible" -- as "nobodies".

This could suggest that the Alpha perspective "transcends" the framework in some way, rather than being placed within it. They might be replaced by Betas within the framework, with Deltas moved into the current position of the Betas. The ambiguity of the relation between Gammas and Betas in the above framework also merits attention. Their positions could also be reversed given the manner in which Betas partake of some of the characteristics in the upper row, and the Gammas those of the lower row. Such remarks point to the extent to which there is a need to engage with ambiguity.

The irony of any "modern" quest for a "memetic code" is that China has long valued an articulation of a pattern of 64 hexagrams, each formed from 3 binary pairs. As a pattern those triplets suggest comparison with the combination of 3 nucleotide bases forming a codon. Possible interpretation of the fourfold pattern can then be encoded using that system, as previously explored (Discovering Richer Patterns of Comprehension to Reframe Polarization, 1998).

Suggestive basis for correspondences between hexagram components and triphosphates composing genetic codons?
Guanosine (GTP) "G"	Adenosine (ATP) "A"
"C" Cytidine (CTP)	"U" Uridine (UTP)

Much is now known to science regarding the properties and functions of the nucleotide bases, and of their combination to form any of the 64 codons basic to the the genetic code. On the other hand, Chinese culture has devoted extensive thought to the role of the fourfold pattern, indicated by the binary coding in the table, and to the insights offered by a combination of any three in a hexagram -- one of 64. The question is whether there is any meaningful correspondence between these two patterns -- as suggested by the table -- and how this is then to be found and comprehended (cf. Theories of Correspondences -- and potential equivalences between them in correlative thinking, 2007). A case for such exploration is well made by the arguments of Susantha Goonatilake (Toward a Global Science: mining civilizational knowledge, 1999)

The question can be framed otherwise in terms of what of significance might be done with a memetic code in the light of the controversy aroused by current and proposed applications of the genetic code. Comprehension of the genetic code involves one form of challenge and mystification. The desperate efforts to possess aspects of the code as intellectual property, for example, are a sad commentary on science -- which typically would deny its complicity, as discussed separately (Knowledge Processes Neglected by Science: insights from the crisis of science and belief, 2012). That of the Chinese encoding offers another -- perhaps necessarily replete with ambiguity and metaphorical allusion -- as well as questionable mystification by its enthusiasts.

Curiously, progress on the path towards such a code in the case of psychosocial relations is also marked at this time by an immediate tendency to treat any such code as intellectual property -- as with some of the patterns of personality types. This is an exemplification of the closure dynamic highlighted in the above pattern, and discussed elsewhere (Future Coping Strategies: beyond the constraints of proprietary metaphors, 1992). Strangely the prime objective is to accumulate wealth in one form or another -- possibly in an extremely intangible form.

This suggests that the control of resources by Huxley's Alphas is echoed in the intentionality with regard to monopolistic acquisition of intellectual property (preferably a "killer app") by "covert Alphas" -- enabling access to it "under licence" for whatever the market will bear. No question of key insights being considered a "world heritage". "Alpha" might be better considered as an embryonic mindset emerging from the pattern of interactions, as with functions associated with the other letters. Dawkins too might be considered an Alpha, for example, in his quest for a form of scientific closure which would definitively exclude those of alternative persuasion -- even of those yet to come.

Discovery of the genetic code offers a further lesson through the manner in which its deterministic nature was anticipatively over-hyped and through the subsequent obligation to focus on epigenetics as a complementary source of insight. The same might be expected of any memetic code and the complementary role of epimemetics. This is strikingly evident in advocated patterns of psychological types which focus, in their visual presentation, on the types in isolation rather than on the dynamics within which they are embedded.

Animation of codon triplet representation (attribution of nucleotide bases to hexagram elements as in table above; hexagrams on the left to be read upwards)
Sequence in conventional hexagram order (faster animation)	Sequence in alphabetic order of codon (slower animation)

These animations can be understood as experiments to determine whether patterns are detectable visually in cycling through the two sequences, possibly at different speeds, as with movie frames. What resemblance might such patterns have to "letters" ? Would the role of gamma as a second order derivative in finance (as noted below) suggest the possibility of meaningful pattern recognition in the case of the rate of the rate of change in the speed of the animation? How do such questions relate to the sense in which the codons are indicative of forms of resonance within a pattern of resonance which characterises the whole, as indicated by the circular pattern of hexagrams (the logo of this website). The pattern may be understood as a form of resonance hybrid. The emergent "letters" might then be understood like Chladni patterns.

Representation of genetic code (Reproduced from Plant Life; for an alternative representation see Wikipedia image showing structures of amino acids)

The term "alphabet" is often used in relation to the genetic code. Its appropriateness is reinforced by the above diagram, whether the "letters" are to be considered in association with the underlying (U, A, G, C), or with their triplet combinations, or with the amino acids for which they encode around the circumference in the diagram above. It is of course the 20+ amino acids which are numerically of the same order as conventional alphabets -- which typically range from in excess of 20 to less than 64. It is to be expected that the fourfold pattern may itself be contested (Expanding the Genetic Alphabet May Be Easier Than Previously Thought, Science Daily, 3 June 2012; Eörs Szathmáry, Why are there four letters in the genetic alphabet? Nature Reviews Genetics, 4, December 2003, pp. 995-1001).

This pattern could be considered to some degree isomorphic with that of the memetic code, as suggested here. The current predilection for alphabets of limited size to achieve "literacy" (clearly inadequate to the psychosocial challenge), then suggests that this may imply and disguise "alphabets" or another kind -- necessary for the "functional literacy" as yet to be achieved.

This suggests a fruitful contrast between the formation of letters in the Latin-style alphabets, depicted by a limited number of lines within the fourfold framework above, and the use by the Chinese of ideograms (or logograms) of greater complexity. The pattern of strokes through which these are constructed could then be understood as linking the 64 triplets singly -- in contrast to Latin-style alphabets linking their clusters as amino acids. As "ideograms" they naturally hold a closer degree of isomorphism to what they represent. However they also disguise the functional dynamics in their own way, as well as their cognitive implications -- to which calligraphy may offer a degree of access (as suggested below).

Suggested association of a letter of a conventional alphabet with 20+ amino acids	Suggested association of a Chinese ideogram with 64 codon triplets

Much was made of the expected results of the Human Genome Project to map the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint. By comparison, in the light of the above argument, the number of Chinese characters (ideograms or logograms) has been variously estimated as being of the order of 50,000.

It is through combinations of "letters" that "words" are constructed. Ther question here is how the cognitive implications of a letter (through the dynamics of its construction) are effectively "diluted" (or lost) through their combination in this way. The further implication is that the diluted significance is then primarily associated with the word -- potentially giving rise to a sense of a "lost langage". The argument above suggests that the ability creatively to interrelate the dimensions of the foutfold pattern is more powerfully evident through the letter -- as may be the case with a complex Chinese character. It is appropriate to note that such a character is associated with each of the 64 hexagrams.

An alphabet, whatever the number of letters considered adequate, is effectively a cognitive systems diagram of psychosocial dynamics. However it is presented through its letters individually and separately -- posing the question of how to fit them together meaningfully, as with a jigsaw puzzle or a Rubik Cube. The map of known metabolic pathways is suggestive in that respect. The challenge is the nature of its psychosocial analogue, as discussed separately (Magic Carpets as Psychoactive System Diagrams, 2010)

Map of metabolic pathways (indicating triphosphates at upper right; reproduced from Wikipedia, see larger version)

Biochemists make use of songs to memorise and recall these complex pathways (Harold Baum, Biochemists' Song Book, 1995; MP3 files). It is appropriate to speculate on the songlines appropriate to a psychosocial map, as variously considered (A Singable Earth Charter, EU Constitution or Global Ethic? 2006).

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