From sports visors to hypervisors: enabling global governance otherwise?

Baseball Cap Implications in the Quest for Global Hegemony (Part #9)

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Symbolism: This argument derives from the form of the baseball cap -- a soft cap with a rounded crown and a stiff bill projecting in front. There is some confusion with regard to the terminology, since the bill may be named as a brim or a visor. Related headgear is described as a sports visor (as noted above). As the national pastime, baseball is recognized as a national symbol (A Complete List of National Symbols of the United States, Science Struck).

Much creativity is associated with the symbols, logos and messages on the rounded crown. Such use recalls the heraldic function of shields and other emblematic devices in offering and promoting a sense of individual and collective identity.

It is less evident whether the baseball cap as such is to be recognized as a symbol of freedom, although the Phyrgian cap has figured widely in US iconography and was a traditional symbol of liberty -- but is no longer worn or esteemed as such.

To the extent that the baseball cap is indeed a symbol of freedom by association with the game, irrespective of the logos it may bear, the question here is whether the freedom it symbolizes is especially constrained in any way by its very form. The argument suggests that the freedom it exemplifies may be only a quarter of the freedom with which a global system is potentially associated. The effective exclusion of women and others would be consistnt with that argument.

Designers have long recognized that shapes convey a meaning (Catherine Beyer, Geometric Shapes and Their Symbolic Meanings, Learn Religions, 8 July 2019; Steven Bradley, The Meaning Of Shapes: developing visual grammar, Vanseo Design, 5 April 2010; Carrie Cousins, The (Sometimes Hidden) Meaning of Shapes, Design Shack, 12 May 2015; David Fontana. The Secret Language of Symbols: a visual key to symbols and their meanings, Chronicle Books. 2003; The Psychological Meanings Behind Familiar Shapes (And How to Use Them), Shutterstock, 20 November 2015).

The question here is how the symbolism of the baseball cap is used (or misued) in order to advance a particular agenda as would be a normal feature of memetic warfare and propaganda (Missiles, Missives, Missions and Memetic Warfare: navigation of strategic interfaces in multidimensional knowledge space, 2001; Information warfare as predominant feature of future civilization, 2019).

As variously implied above the baseball cap could be recognized as a pattern within a complex of patterns, whether or not it is at its nexus. The baseball diamond features in one such exploration (Richard C. Crepeau, Baseball: America's Diamond Mind, University Presses of Florida, 1980). That framing has been adapted to Diamond Mind Baseball -- a computer baseball simulation game. This offers a curious degree of allusion to Diamond Way Buddhism (Rob Nairn, Diamond Mind: a psychology of meditation, Shambhala, 2001).

Potentially more fundamental is the symbolism associated with the central role of baseball's pentagonal home plate -- most obviously given that associated with the global role of The Pentagon as the headquarters of the US Department of Defense. That pattern is curiously fundamental to Islam through the Islamic star, to Chinese culture through the Wu Xing, and to the Western tradition of health through Hygieia (Memorable dynamics of living and dying: Hygeia and Wu Xing, 2014). Is there an extraordinary dimension to players "running the diamond" to get to home plate?

Fashion accessories: It is therefore to be expected that the capacity to carry significance in this way should be complemented by other fashion accessories. This is indeed the case with respect to the wide range of jewelry variously indicating affiliation to the pattern of belief associated with baseball -- whether for women or for men. However, whereas this argument focuses on the significance of the baseball curve (and its tennis-ball equivalent), it is curious to note that these do not feature significantly in that range of baseball-themed jewelry.

Strangely it is the detailed stitching of the baseball seam which is most evident in that jewelry, with little evidence of any focus on the pattern of the curve as a whole. Most evident are baseball seam bracelets highlighting a portion of that stitching pattern, but not the curve -- potentially recalling widespread concerns with a "stitch-up" in American culture. The stitching pattern may even feature on wedding rings. By contrast, tennis-themed jewelry may occasionally focus more specifically on the tennis-ball curve -- but as an "S-curve" -- as one of the curves which feature in ring design for mathematicians (or their spouses). The three-dimensional sweep of the twisting curve is however scarcely evident.

A notable exception is the reference to bicylindrical curves, and their use by the Swiss jeweller Philippe Mingard (Robert Ferréol, Bicylindrical Curve, 2018; Archytas Curve, 2018; Seam Line of a Tennis Ball, 2018). As the first nonplanar curve, described by Archytas (428-347 BC), the latter features more commonly in mathematical jewelry. As quoted by Ferréol, Mingard deems the curve to be the "the manifestation of simplicity and purity incarnate". For American baseball enthusiasts with an inclination to Christian mysticism, the bicylindrical form of the curve could similarly be recognized as "binding" the transcendental juncture of the vertical and horizontal arms of the Cross.

Curiously there seem to be no depictions of transparent balls enabling the fall sweep of the curve to be highlighted. The many "transparent baseball" images available refer to the transparency of the background (enabling superposition for illustrative purposes). It is rare to find sculptures presenting the curve in free-standing isolation. However, given the many baseball and tennis clubs with entertainment facilities, for which focal symbols are sought, it could be readily imagined that a transparent ball of whatever size could be featured as a water-effect, rotated as is the practice with some fountains.

Curves: Mathematicians cultivate a particular interest in curves (List of Curves, Wikipedia; Gallery of Curves, Wikipedia; List of Famous Curves, Mathematica; Stephen Kokoska, Fifty Famous Curves). As with mathematical symbols, these may feature in jewelry and on baseball caps. As noted, this is seemingly not the case with regard to the curving seam of the baseball. This does not even feature explicitly in the lists of curves, despite its importance to mathematics in the tennis-ball theorem (Is there a neat way to write the parameterization of this tennis-ball-seam-like curve on the sphere? Mathematics Stack Exchange). It would appear that as a "theorem" it has not justified inclusion in any compendium of curves. More curious is that the only reference to a "baseball curve" in such a list focuses on a ballistic issue.

Of potentially far greater relevance is the manner in which the baseball curve is fundamental to enabling the creation of a spherical form from flat materials -- a shift in modality from "flatland" to "sphereland". Irrespective of its relevance to meaningful globalization, this has long been a speculative focus of mathematicians (Edwin Abbott Abbott, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, 1884. Ian Stewart, The Annotated Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, 2008; Dionys Burger, Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe, 1965).

Xen curve? Unlike other curves, the "baseball / tennis-ball curve" does not seem to have a name -- although seemingly included in the class of bicylindrical curves. However a ring closely resembling that curve is produced by a specialist in wave-inspired jewelry -- and has been named as a Xen curve ring (designed by Lillian Grace). Further exploration pointed to the existence of Xen as a type of "hypervisor". This little-known software application enables the simultaneous creation, execution and management of multiple virtual machines on one physical computer (Xen Project Software Overview, Xen Wiki; Xen Performance Guide; Xen Hypervisor, Technopedia).

However the only reference to any "Xen curve" found in the associated literature featured in a paper by Michael Sevilla, et al (A framework for an in-depth comparison of scale-up and scale-out, November 2013) where it was only noted that: the Xen curve is the time to perform one checkpoint, not a fault tolerant Xen word count. How this might be construed as descriptive of the ring of that name, or of the baseball curve, is unclear.

This may therefore be a case of se non è vero, è ben trovato, for what is intriguing is the suggested relation to a "hypervisor" -- to be speculatively contrasted with the "visor" of a baseball cap and its various implications with regard to any "flatland" worldview. The latter featured in the prize winning work by Thomas Friedman (The World Is Flat, 2005; Hot, Flat and Crowded, 2009), as subsequently reviewed (Irresponsible Dependence on a Flat Earth Mentality -- in response to global governance challenges, 2008).

This argument is further developed with animations in Re-membering the Globe from a Flatland Perspective: reconciling in 3D the Vitruvian archetype with sports ball curves (2020).

Beyond hegemony: requisite hypervision for global governance? Baseball culture, as exemplified in its symbolic appropriation by Donald Trump, is characterized to a high degree by verbal "hype", as widely noted. This has framed the quest within that culture for global hegemony, as variously noted. This could be understood as taking the form of "supervision" to be exercised in the future by a self-selected superpower -- through the perspective implied by a baseball cap, as argued here.

However, rather than the ambiguity of "oversight" currently associated with "supervision" -- with all the negligence such oversight typically implies, there is a case for recognizing the insight that "hypersight" might offer (Ambiguity of "democratic oversight": institutionalisation of negligence? 2013; Enabling oversight through simulation of requisite complexity, 2013).

The subtlety of a "hypervisor" in potentially enabling "hypervision" and "hypersight" is indicative of a paradigm shift already embodied by computer technology. As the capacity to enable the operation of multiple forms of virtual organization within a single physical form, it could be understood as effectively simulating what has been so desperately imagined as a requisite modality for global governance. As such it is a practical reflection  of the elusive insight into the desirability of unity-in-diversity or diversity-in-unity.

Such a paradigm shift is an invitation to speculative elaboration (Hyperaction through Hypercomprehension and Hyperdrive: necessary complement to proliferation of hypermedia in hypersociety, 2006; Imagining Order as Hypercomputing: operating an information engine through meta-analogy, 2014). What "physical" form might such a psychosocial analogue take in order to enable the coexistence of a variety of "virtual" modalities -- as could be explored in the light of the eight modalities of Gareth Morgan (Images of Organization, 1986). Could an appropriate legal framework be elaborated in the light of reflection on variable institutional geometry?

A paradigm shift of that nature clearly requires new forms of vigilance, since it is associated with the increasing role of artificial intelligence and the recognized threats of a technological singularity. Is it only artificial intelligence which would be capable of "hypersight" and "hypervision"? Problematically, global hegemony might even take a new and subtler form (Emerging Memetic Singularity in the Global Knowledge Society, 2009). Ironically this is potentially suggested by the form of the baseball curve as a whole. Will AI exploit a capacity for pitching "curveballs" to which humanity will be unable to respond?

Any capacity to shift from the limited perspective of the "front quarter" of that curve (and of the global system) such as to encompass those portions associated with the "back of the head", could then be caricatured as offering a stereoscopic "META" modality in contrast with the oversimplistic "MAGA" modality currently the focus of hyperbole. This could be potentially consistent with the "wei ch'i" strategy indicated above, which features so fundamentally in the Chinese game of go -- currently a preoccupation of artificial intelligence.

Focusing on the baseball curve as a waveform in such a paradigm shift would be consistent with the argument of Alexander Wendt (Quantum Mind and Social Science: unifying physical and social ontology, 2015; The mind-body problem and social science: motivating a quantum social theory, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 48, 2018, 2), as discussed separately (On being "walking wave functions" in terms of quantum consciousness? 2017).

Arguably the seam curves of the tennis ball and the baseball are particular instances of curves of fundamental significance to future wave comprehension of the globe -- of which sinusoidal waves in 3D are especially indicative (Robert Ferréol, Spherical Sinusoid, 2018).

Hypervision as traditionally represented? Despite its seeming complexity, it is therefore especially curious to note that the form of a single baseball / tennis-ball curve features in the simplest traditional Celtic knot designs -- symbols of great significance to that culture (The Celtic Knot Symbol and Its Meaning, Mythologian, net). The patterns, although two-dimensional, do explicitly indicate their three-dimensionality through the interwoven nature of the representation as a whole.

Examples of Celtic knot patterns
Extracted from Collection of 39 Celtic knot patterns  (Craftsmanspace)				From The Celtic Knot Symbol and Its Meaning (Mythologian, net)

There is a case for exploring how such patterns in 2D could be pulled into a third dimension -- into approximations to a spherical form -- then to be confronted with configurations of one or more 3D variants of the baseball seam curve (Lee Stemkoski, Parameterized Knots) . The process of comparison could be reversed by "flattening" those 3D baseball configurations into 2D. Might it indeed be the case, as implied by the argument above, that a baseball cap perspective can only "see" one quarter of the global configuration implied by a Celtic knot?

Given the schematic indication by the baseball curve of a cyclic process fundamental to engendering and sustaining globality, there is a case for recognizing analogous representations of that same process in other cultures. A classic example is offered by the depiction in Chinese culture of a pair of dragons in competitive pursuit of a pearl --  notably celebrated in architecture and dance. The dragons have long featured weaving undulating patterns on carved puzzle balls (Claire Voon, The Mind-Boggling Artistry of China's Ivory Puzzle Balls, Atlas Obscura, 3 May 2019; Â Chinese Puzzle Balls: the Rubik's Cube of the Ancient World, 2012). Their depiction on a sphere can now be variously emulated in virtual reality using 3D technology (Rotation and pumping of nested Chinese "puzzle balls" as symbolizing "worlds-within-worlds", 2015).

	2 Dragons in pursuit of Pearl-Sphere an adaptation of Chinese iconography
Generated using Stella Polyhedron Navigator using dragons depicted in Wikipedia

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