Path-ology: eliciting dynamic patterns of empowering and disempowering conditions

Correlating a Requisite Diversity of Metaphorical Patterns (Part #8)

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Board games: References were made above to the sense in which engagement in board games such as snakes and ladders can be understood as serving a representative and instructive function, notably including chess and go, as discussed separately (Sustainability through Magically Dancing Patterns: 8x8, 9x9, 19x19 -- I Ching, Tao Te Ching / T'ai Hsüan Ching, Wéiq? (Go), 2008). The association with relational insights through other systematically organized Chinese classics has long elicited commentary (Hyperspace Clues to the Psychology of the Pattern that Connects -- in the light of the 81 Tao Te Ching insights, 2003). The Western-framed challenge of recognizing the "pattern that connects" is necessarily relevant (Walking Elven Pathways: enactivating the pattern that connects, 2006).

There is therefore a case for recognizing the exploration of such "cognitive metabolic pathways" as constituting a discipline which might be appropriately named "path-ology" -- as reflection on experiential engagement in the pathways of snakes and ladders, and the like. As noted above, in a period characterized by widespread depression, disillusion, despair, disgust, denigration and denial, understanding the pathways in which these are embedded merits particular attention. These conditions complement the unquestioned focus on their opposites in an era named by John Michael Greer (The Era of Pretense, Resilience, 14 May 2015). The increasing recognition accorded to bipolar disorder is one reflection of this.

As discussed separately (Playing the Great Game with Intelligence, 2013), such associations offer curious echoes to the elaboration of a "game of spheres" by Nicholas de Cusa (De Ludo Globi, 1463), written as a contribution to both a literature and a practice of moral game-playing. This formed part of the tradition of the forgotten chess-like game Rithmomachia ("The Battle of Numbers" or Rythmomachy), which combined the pleasures of gaming with mathematical study and moral education. Intellectuals of the medieval and Renaissance periods who played this game were not only seeking to master the principles of Boethian mathematics but were striving to improve their own understanding of the secrets of the cosmos (Ann E. Moyer, In The Philosophers' Game, 2001). This was undoubtedly an inspiration for the magnum opus of Nobel Laureate Hermann Hesse, as noted by Todd R. Harris (The Interplay of Opposites, the Language of Experience, and the Geometry of Ascent: a comparison of Hermann Hesse's "Das Glasperlenspiel" and Nicholas of Cusa's "De Ludo Globi", 2001).

Animations: Underlying the pattern of the I Ching, the traditional circular pattern of the BaGua (termed the BaGua Mirror) necessarily lends itself to animations consistent with the dynamics between its various conditions, as presented and discussed separately (Animation of Classical BaGua Arrangements: a dynamic representation of Neti Neti, 2008). The latter illustrated the dynamics of a related mapping of the hexagrams (Mapping of I Ching hexagram coding onto Star of David, 2008). The argument can be developed as an explicitly cross-cultural exercise, using a circular configuration of the hexagrams (Dynamic Exploration of Value Configurations: interrelating traditional cultural symbols through animation, 2008).

Another approach is to explore the dynamics between the conditions indicated by the hexagrams in forming a hypercycle (Adaptive Hypercycle of Sustainable Psychosocial Self-organization: designing a mapping of a Chinese metaphorical pattern language, 2010). This offers a reminder of the subtle complexity of the pattern with which individual experience is required to engage -- irrespective of the more constrained frameworks promoted conventionally as adequate models to explain that process.

Spiral configuration of hexagrams (8 arms to the spiral, one for each of the 8 hexagram "house" clusters, namely 8 hexagrams per spiral arm) [provisional image in anticipation of resolution of technical issues -- Disabled]

Transcending polarity: Of particular interest in such exercises is the manner in which polarity is handled and the possibilities of its transcendence are indicated. This concern is of special relevance in a period preoccupied by full-spectrum dominance and global hegemony of a particular nature -- to which no challenge is admissible. This framework plays out in the bloody conflicts engendered by an us-or-them logic (Us and Them: Relating to Challenging Others: patterns in the shadow dance between "good" and "evil", 2009).

As a foreign policy articulated as You're either with us, or against us it favours retrogression to Stone Age mindsets (Nick Cullather, Bomb them Back to the Stone Age: an etymology, History News Network, 10 June 2006). However, switching metaphors, there is always value in using "first-gear" during start-up operations and in engaging with problematic terrain -- even though this may be completely inadequate for "take-off", as argued separately (Counteracting Extremes Enabling Normal Flying: insights for global governance from birds on the wing, 2015).

It is within this context that the argument can be taken further through an exercise in rendering dynamic the circular arrangement of the 64 I Ching hexagrams as shown below (based on the original static depiction). The two levels of the hexagrams are separated to allow an inner ring of trigrams to rotate with respect to an outer ring. This brings trigrams successively into association with one another in order -- indicative of the distinctive condition engendered. It can be understood as framing and sustaining an elusive transcendent condition indicated by the central circle.

64 Hexagrams of I Ching formed by animation of inner circle of trigrams relative to outer circle (also mp4 version)

Aside from technical defects, this animation lends itself to a variety of indicative improvements to highlight those relationships which might be considered "activated" under certain conditions (as suggested in the experiments below). It is interesting to note the degree to which such a cognitive device is reminiscent of the form of the traditional geomantic feng shui compass, which may have many separate rings (Stephen Skinner, Guide to the Feng Shui Compass, 2008). It also strangely resembles the circular logarithm table. In an information context, this would then raise the question of any understanding of the cognitive psychogeography of cyberspace -- or of any information context.

Prayer beads: Whether static or dynamic, this circular presentation usefully recalls the experiential significance associated by some religions with the practice of progression through circlets of beads (Designing Cultural Rosaries and Meaning Malas to Sustain Associations within the Pattern that Connects, 2000). As noted there, it is intriguing that the number of beads in such experiential circlets is of a similar order to the number of hexagrams:

• 108 mala beads of the Buddhist rosary or more (112 in Japan), although lay persons may use only 30 to 40 -- as with European 'worry beads'.
• The Tibetan variant has 108 plus 3 (separating groups of 27) plus 1. The 'wrist mala' is usually made up of 22 beads.
• In Hinduism, the number of beads varies from 18, 27, 54 to 108 -- with an extra bead inserted -- called the meru, to indicate when the chanting cycle (japa) is finished
• For Muslims the bead-string (Tasbih or Subha), consists of 33, 66, or 99 beads, and is used for counting devotionally the names of Allah -- a 100th bead terminating the cycle.
• Catholic rosaries have 50 beads, namely 5 groups of 10; Eastern Orthodox may use 100.
• Anglican prayer beads may comprise four groups of seven beads called Weeks which are divided by four Cruciform beads

As mnemonic aids, these raise the question of what devices reflecting equivalent diversity are developed or envisaged with respect to personal management of ease and dis-ease.

Rotation of magnetic field: The relatively simple animation above suggests a relationship to the thinking of Nikola Tesla which gave rise to his insight into the rotating magnetic field, as discussed separately (Reimagining Tesla's Creativity through Technomimicry: psychosocial empowerment by imagining charged conditions otherwise, 2014). This notably included sections on:

Visual thinking as indicated by Tesla and by consideration thereof Psychosocial relevance of Tesla's creative process Imagining a method for adapting Tesla's insights to a psychosocial context Detecting a meta-pattern of connectivity amongst Tesla's insights Patterns of patterns: towards dynamic integrative mapping of inventions

Potential implications of alternation and rotation in psychosocial fields Insight into global dynamics through Tesla's focus on the sphere Psychosocial insights from the electrical War of Currents -- AC versus DC Encycling positive and negative for future sustainability

As described there, the breakthrough in Tesla's thinking with respect to alternation/rotation is eloquently described by John J. O'Neill (Prodigal Genius: the life of Nikola Tesla, 1968):

• The conception of a rotating magnetic field was a majestically beautiful one. It introduced to the scientific world a new principle of sublime grandeur whose simplicity and utility opened a vast new empire of useful applications... Alternating currents motors had heretofore presented what seemed an insoluble problem because the magnetic field produced by alternating currents changed as rapidly as the current. Instead of producing a turning force they churned up useless vibration.
  
  Up to this time everyone who tried to make an alternating current motor used a single circuit, just as was in direct current. As a result the projected motor proved to be like a single cylinder steam engine, stalled at dead center, at the top or bottom of the stroke.
  
  What Tesla did was to use two circuits, each one carrying the same frequency of alternating current, but in which the current waves were out of step with each other. This was equivalent to adding to an engine a second cylinder. The pistons in the two cylinders were connected to the shaft so that their cranks were at an angle to each other which caused them to reach the top or bottom of the stroke at different times. The two could never be on dead center at the same time. If one were on dead center, the other would be off and ready to start the engine turning with a power stroke. (p. 50)
  
  
• This analogy oversimplifies the situation, of course, for Tesla's discovery was much more far-reaching and fundamental. What Tesla has discovered was a means of creating a rotating magnetic field, a magnetic whirlwind in space which possessed fantastically new and intriguing properties. It was an utterly new conception. In direct-current motors a fixed magnetic field was tricked by mechanical means into producing rotation in an armature by connecting successively through a commutator each of a series of coils arranged around the circumference of a cylindrical armature. Tesla produced a field of force which rotated in space at high speed and was able to lock tightly into its embrace an armature which required no electrical connections. The rotating field possessed the property of transferring wirelessly through space, by means of its lines of force, energy to the simple closed circuit coils on the isolated armature which enabled it to build up its own magnetic field that locked itself into the rotating magnetic whirlwind produced by the field coils. The need for a commutator was completely eliminated. (pp. 50-51)
  
  
• He worked out the design of dynamos, motors, transformers and all other devices for a complete alternating-current system. He multiplied the effectiveness of the two-phase system by making it operate on three or more alternating currents simultaneously. This was his famous polyphase power system.

As separately discussed, the question is whether there is an analogous form of "rotation" which would prove significant to the transcendence of the Stone Age world view now actively seeking to dominate global strategic governance (Massive Elicitation of Psychosocial Energy Requisite: technology for collective enlightenment, 2011). Can the indicated transformations between conditions in the animation above be understood as equivalent in some way to the wiring pattern on the electromagnetic coil of motors and dynamo?

As indicated by the screen shots below, experimental modifications of the animation above are suggestive in this respect, potentially as catalysts for further reflection (In Quest of Mnemonic Catalysts -- for comprehension of complex psychosocial dynamics, 2007).

Screen shots of experimental animations of 64 hexagrams of I Ching (presented separately in Annex 4: Experimental Revolutionary Animations of a Chinese Pattern of Metaphors)
With rotation of outer ring [slower] [faster]	With counter-rotation of 2 outer rings [slower]	With counter-rotation of 4 outer rings [faster]

Paradoxical indication of polarity: The challenge of positive vs negative in electromagnetism is indicative of an equivalent challenge with respect to controversial psychosocial insights into duality, whether positive-negative, objective-subjective, internal-external, upper-lower, inner-outer, right-wrong, etc -- with the valued and deprecated associations they elicit. In the case of electromagnetism, it is a matter of convention -- a technical fiat -- as to what is "positive" and what is "negative" (as it is with respect to electrons and protons). It is curious that that the disorder of "bipolarity" (noted above) is also recognized as a feature of both electromagnetism and of international relations.

The reading of a hexagram, and its indications, can be challenged in such terms -- whether presented in isolation or configured with others in a circle.

Alternative conventions for indication of conditions
reading (in table) top-to-bottom	reading (in table) bottom-to-top	unbroken = positive	unbroken = negative	reading (in circle) inner-to-outer	reading (in circle) outer-to-inner
begin	end			outer	inner
end	begin			inner	outer

Whilst seemingly trivial, the direction of reading and the manner in which significance is then attributed to it, may go to the heart of the slippery, paradoxical nature of polarity and duality. This is evident in the associations with "top", and the striving to be "top-most" -- with the deprecation of the "bottom-most". It is evident with respect to those in any "inner" circle -- and those consequently deprecated as "not-in", who may be striving to be "in". This becomes more problematic when "inner" is associated with "subjective" (or internal) and "outer" with "objective" (or external) -- as with many of the natural sciences.

There is also the strange convention of associating an "unbroken" line with "positive", in contrast with the alternative of associating it with "negative" -- with all the consequent implications for "male" and "female". More intriguing still is the inversion in which the lines are marked in white, rather than black -- on a black background rather than a white one. This has implications for the "good" being associated with "white" and the "evil" with "black".

It is appropriate to note that another Chinese classic also makes use of a diagram of broken and unbroken lines. In the case of the 64 insights of the I Ching, each is represented by six such lines, each of which may be unbroken (yang), or broken once only (yin). By contrast, in the case of the T'ai Hsüan Ching (or Canon of Supreme Mystery), these are represented by four such lines, each of which may be unbroken, or broken once or twice, as discussed separately (9-fold Magic Square Pattern of Tao Te Ching Insights: experimentally associated with the 81 insights of the T'ai Hsüan Ching, 2006).

Curiously these issues, notably commentary on the origins of the I Ching notation, recall the famed arguments of George Spencer-Brown (Laws of Form, 1969). This is highly relevant to the vexatious issue of how boundaries are established and defined -- with all the controversy that can result. LoF is introduced by use of a symbolic element termed a mark or a cross. As explained in Wikipedia,

In Spencer-Brown's inimitable and enigmatic fashion, the Mark symbolizes the root of cognition, i.e., the dualistic Mark indicates the capability of differentiating a "this" from "everything else but this." In LoF, a Cross denotes the drawing of a "distinction", and can be thought of as signifying the following, all at once:

• The act of drawing a boundary around something, thus separating it from everything else;
• That which becomes distinct from everything by drawing the boundary;
• Crossing from one side of the boundary to the other.

All three ways imply an action on the part of the cognitive entity (e.g., person) making the distinction. As LoF puts it: The first command: Draw a distinction can well be expressed in such ways as:

Let there be a distinction, Find a distinction, See a distinction,

Describe a distinction, Define a distinction,

Or: Let a distinction be drawn....

The counterpoint to the Marked state is the Unmarked state, which is simply nothing, the void, represented by a blank space. It is simply the absence of a Cross. No distinction has been made and nothing has been crossed. The Marked state and the void are the two primitive values of the Laws of Form. The Cross can be seen as denoting the distinction between two states, one "considered as a symbol" and another not so considered. From this fact arises a curious resonance with some theories of consciousness and language. Paradoxically, the Form is at once Observer and Observed, and is also the creative act of making an observation. LoF... closes with the words:

...the first distinction, the Mark and the observer are not only interchangeable, but, in the form, identical.

Reflexivity and higher orders of cybernetics: So framed it is interesting to speculate on the relevance of such insights -- and the potentially "slippery" reading of the marks constituted by any hexagram -- with respect to currently emerging distinctions between different orders of cybernetics. Insights into more appropriate means of managing connectivity and disagreement are now suggested by exploration of higher orders of cybernetics (Maurice Yolles and Gerhard Fink, A General Theory of Generic Modelling and Paradigm Shift: cybernetic orders, Kybernetes, 44, 2015).

These notably take account of self-reflexivity -- itself to be distinguished in varying degrees meriting exploration and recognition. As phrased by the authors:

• First-order cybernetic feedback is typically seen to be associated with Newtonian mechanical objectivity. It is therefore positivist, centring on systemic objects being observed by some external objective observer
• Second-order cybernetics embraces radical constructivism, allowing for instrumental learning and agnosticism towards objective reality..
• Third-order simplex cybernetic spaces should be seen to represent the observed and observing systems together forming another system, from which a new relativistic interactive worldview arises from self-observing viewers that have self-observed worldviews. Third-order cybernetics is also characterised by the way it resolves undecidabilities, these being constituted in the logic of the present moment by the anticipations of the system.
• It is possible to formulate a statement of fourth order cybernetics in terms of the higher levels of relationship between observed and observing systems.... However, a more pragmatic and satisfactory... approach allows one to respond to the variety in a complex situation with an invariant generic construct more capable of generating requisite variety. Higher orders of simplex modelling have this capability since they provide new ways of explaining complexity by representing external influences as internal imperatives, thereby creating greater complexity for the immanent agency dynamics, but reducing undecidability. To explain the use of higher order models, rather than use observers relationships, a more minimal way is to adopt a concept of generic loop learning..., even if this redirects us away from... adaptability. Here then, fourth order cybernetics could be represented as triple loop generic learning (beyond the double loop generic learning of third cybernetics), referring to the way in which knowledge is not only acquired but also identified.
• On the way to developing our general theory, the paper gave examples of first, second, third and fourth order simplexity. Higher orders of simplex modelling under complexity exist through the conceptual generic concepts that define them. This is the result of conceptual emergence, important to processes of systemic modelling. So far we have not attempted to move beyond fourth order simplexity, awaiting for new concepts able to generate fifth and higher orders of simplexity. However, we have shown that higher order simplex models can be generated through the use of recursion

Especially relevant is the earlier collaboration of the principal author with a Chinese scholar (Ye Zude and Maurice Yolles, Cybernetics of Tao, Kybernetes, 39, 2010). As noted there:

Here, autopoiesis is a term that can now be simply seen as a network of processes that enables noumenal activity to become manifested phenomenally, and in autonomous systems this is conditioned by autogenesis -- a network of principles that create a second order form of autopoiesis that guides autopoietic processes. Autopoiesis may be thought as a process in which virtual images are manifested phenomenally. Autogenesis provides a network of principles that ultimately drives autopoiesis.

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