Meta-discourse possibility of nested polyhedral configurations

Embodying Global Hegemony through a Sustaining Pattern of Discourse (Part #10)

[Parts: First | Prev | All] [Visuals] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]

Disagreement and passing patterns: The argument here has focused on using polarization in discourse -- namely radical disagreement -- as an unexplored key to global discourse and its configuration, as noted above (Using Disagreements for Superordinate Frame Configuration, 1992). A nested polyhedral configuration can therefore be understood as a configuration transcending the disagreements associated with those polarizations. The possibilities associated with use of polyhedra to this end -- as offering a sense of communication "pathways" -- have previously been explored otherwise (Polyhedral meta-patterns of relationships? 2015; Pathway "route maps" of potential psychosocial transformation? 2015). With respect to global discourse, these could be understood in terms of the metaphor of "passing patterns", so intensively explored in ball sports (most notably football and basketball), as noted above..

Triangulation: Especially intriguing in the light of the laconic subtitle of this document -- Cognitive challenge of dominion over all one surveys -- is the fundamental role of triangulation in the process of "surveying". The argument indicates how the dynamics of the polyhedra establish what amounts to triangulation points on the circumsphere of the rhombic triacontahedron. The importance of this process in establishing the coherence and credibility of a survey is noted separately (Triangulation of Incommensurable Concepts for Global Configuration, 2011). Consistent with the preoccupation with radical disagreement, that document is an annex addressing the fundamental issue of the times (Reframing the Dynamics of Engaging with Otherness, 2011).

Reframing dominion: The interpretation of "dominion" can be readily recognized as having positive and negative connotations. Both are evident when it is understood politically (colonialism, imperialism, etc) or theologically. The ambitions of ISIS for an Islamic Caliphate resemble those of dominion theology (or dominionism), namely that Christians should work toward either a nation governed by Christians or one governed by a conservative Christian understanding of biblical law, as variously described with respect to the USA (The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party; Sarah Posner, The Christian right's "dominionist" strategy, Salon, 21 August 2011; Daniel Burke, 5 Facts About Dominionism, The Huffington Post, 9 January 2011; Bruce Wilson, "Wage War To Restore a Christian America", The Huffington Post, 30 January 2015). If Christian radicalism is driving the Republican agenda, how is this now to be compared with Islamic radicalism to gain insight into the nature of radicalism? And why does Wikipedia not have an equivalent entry on Christian radicalism?

The issue is usefully clarified by an exploration of the exotic nature of the Enlightenment (G. S. Rousseau and Roy Porter, Exoticism in the Enlightenment, 1990):. The authors note in their introduction (pp 1-2):

There is a potent unifying and universalising drive in western culture's creed of nihil humanum alienum a me puto (I think nothing foreign to me that concerns humanity), adopted from Classicism and encoded into the theory in the writings of of Enlightenment giants... We may, however, read this drive in radically distinct ways. It can be condoned by primitivists and the pious, as a crazy lust for universal domination -- the itch to be monarch of all one surveys: everything must be subjugated, intellectually, physically, and economically, to the order of things as understood by men in Paris, London or Washington. Or we may admire it as the very essence of the odyssey of the mind -- the noble Promethean thirst for universal knowledge, the extending of the Baconian maxim of plus ultra (further yet) into every field of endeavour. And we may also praise it as the paradigm of the civilising mission, the Roman's tu regere (thine is to rule), the white man's burden. It bespeaks an edifying faith that ultimately there is one single family of mankind which can sing in unison the message of human unity.

Such understandings of dominion can therefore be variously challenged. A potentially fruitful approach is through the challenge to knowing and comprehension of subjugating everything -- intellectually, physically, and economically -- to the order of things as understood by elites. This aspiration is of course evident in "full spectrum dominance" in whatever form it takes, as currently exemplified by the desperate global effort to acquire every shred of information to safeguard and extend certain vested interests. There are cognitive constraints on this endeavour, especially those of comprehension, as separately argued (Comprehension of Numbers Challenging Global Civilization, 2014).

Incomprehensible dominion? Given the sense of completeness of understanding implied by dominion, there is a case for exploring an extension or generalization of the incompleteness theorems elaborated by Kurt Gödel. The first could be understood to state that no consistent system of axioms is capable of proving all truths about relationships in their most abstract sense. For any such system, there will always be statements about them that are true, but that are unprovable within the system. As an extension of the first, the second incompleteness theorem shows that such a system cannot demonstrate its own consistency. The theorems could be used as a means of framing the challenges of global comprehension and understanding, namely those of knowing with certainty in a context in which much necessarily remains unknown in any aspiration to be " monarch of all one surveys". There is a continuing challenge of incompleteness and incomprehension in relation to any global overview. This can then be explored in terms of Living with Incomprehension and Uncertainty (2012) by reframing the varieties of non-comprehension and misunderstanding through metaphor -- Towards the dynamic art of partial comprehension (2012). The capacity for dominion is then to be questioned in terms of the capacity for comprehension.

There is the possibility that the associated dynamics can be fruitfully mapped into the core dynamics of the nested polyhedra in a manner consistent with the notorious strategic "poem" of Donald Rumsfeld, as US Secretary of Defense, regarding the known knowns:

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones

Such considerations can be combined with the quadrilemma articulated by Kinhide Mushakoji (Global Issues and Interparadigmatic Dialogue; essays on multipolar politics, 1988) relating: A, B (as not-A), neither A nor not-A, and B (as not-A). Using the polyhedral framework (above), the dimensions in relation to knowing (comprehension, understanding. certainty) and to not-knowing (incomprehension, misunderstanding, uncertainty, ignorance) can be suggestively interrelated as follows.

Dominion dynamically challenged by incomprehension and uncertainty

With respect to knowing and unknowing, the dynamics between the complementary tetrahedra framed by the nesting of polyhedra can also be explored in terms of the paradoxes of relative subjectivity and objectivity with which the "monarch" is faced in "surveying" reality in any quest for its meaningful "dominion" (â¡â¿ Defining the objective 8 Refining the subjective ?! Explaining reality 8 Embodying realization, 2011). The quest for such comprehension continues to be framed by the Greek aphorism "know thyself" inscribed at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Inspection of the above schematic also suggests the possibility that the terahedral morphing may be 4-fold or 8-fold -- thus framing cognitively the "chambers of the heart" underlying the dynamics of value polarities.

Exploratory animations of tetrahedral morphing -- whether to be understood as distinctively 2-fold, 4-fold or 8-fold
Animations prepared using Stella Polyhedron Navigator

A (token) effort was made to orient the set of animations according to the axes of the image above. More effort could be usefully made to ensure that their phasing was distinctively complementary. The fundamental issue is the extent to which the axes of morphing of the two tetrahedra with their duals (across the cube) call for the recognition of 2, 4 or 8 conditions ("cognitive ventricles"). In the spirit of flow psychology, what might be considered to circulate through 4 chambers? Given the heart metaphor, how are the respected flows to be distinguished? What gets transformed into what and where? Knowing to Uncertainty? Uncertainity to Knowing?

Portals to globality: Curiously the triangulation points recall the sense of "portals" (or "power points") -- as imaginatively explored in mythology and science fiction. The person in the classical image presented with that of Kepler above, could be interpreted as engaging with a sense of globality through such a portal. It is intriguing to note that particular significance is attached to various sets of such portals on the circumsphere of the nested polyhedra. These include the set of 8 associated with the vertices of the cube (perhaps to be compared with the Chinese understanding of BaGua), the set of 12 associated with the vertices of the icosahedron, the set of 20 associated with the vertices of the dodecahedron, the set of 30 associated with the vertices of the icosidodecahedron.

Argument mapping and sonification: It is interesting to speculate on how a configuration of nested polyhedra might be used in a high tech web environment supportive of global discourse. In contrast to the focus on "taking minutes" and "making notes", there is a case for focusing on the polarity implicit in in any line of argument -- and then to highlight that polarity visibly within the configuration. This could be done cumulatively to summarize the debate, or dynamically to record the evolution of the argument. In contrast to the the prevalent use of "bullet points". Subsequent "reporting" could either display the nested configuration with all the polarities highlighted -- perhaps further emphasizing visually the frequency with which certain polarities were implicitly evoked. Alternatively the debate could be replayed visually to show the dynamic succession of polarities evoked. In both case this would make apparent any degree of imbalance and the extent to which emergent globality was sustained. A complementary step might be to attribute distinctive signature melodies to each polarity in the configuration to benefit from the arguments for sonification -- to enable any otherwise repetitive debate to be heard otherwise. Would the configuration then constitute a form of "toneship" (Toneship design to enable noonautics by the voices of civilization? 2015).

Revolution via revolition? There is some irony to Kepler's original global configuration of polyhedra as indicative of the heliocentric movement of the planets -- their revolution in relation to the Sun, as an imaginative understanding of the dynamics of globality. With respect to the increasingly controversial cognitive and sociopolitical preoccupation with "revolution", the paradigm shifts which might be associated with continuing calls for the "will to change" and "new thinking" might better be understood in terms of "revolition" (International Organizations and the Generation of the Will to Change: the information systems required, 1970; Edward de Bono, New Thinking for the New Millennium, 1999; Richard A. Slaughter, New Thinking for a New Millennium: the knowledge base of futures studies, 2002).

[Parts: First | Prev | All] [Visuals] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]