Higher degrees of comprehension and their compactification?

Cognitive Implication of Globality via Temporal Inversion (Part #10)

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This argument serves mainly to frame the question as to where insight into comprehension of higher derivatives of time is to be found and how such comprehension is to be recognized. Ironically, given the argument above relating "gravity" in a cognitive sense to arrogance, there is clearly a challenge to engaging with those who might be assumed to have such insight -- only emphasized by the association of gravitas with such gravity. There is also the suspicion that the associated cognitive skill could well be evident in processes which are already reasonably familiar: split-second deision-making and risk-taking, skilled repartee, adaptability to challenges on-the-fly, and kinetic intelligence (notably in the martial arts).

The insights associated with creativity and genius clearly merit consideration, especially those with remarkable calculating skills (including those characterized by savant syndrome). An obvious challenge lies in how wisdom is to be recognized in relation to higher derivatives of time and its embodiment, as discussed separately (The Isdom of the Wisdom Society: embodying time as the heartland of humanity, 2003).

Such examples also serve to highlight how such capacities are "compactified" -- in a sense analogous to that framed so skillfully by fundamental physics in terms of "curled up" or "wrapped up" higher dimensionality. How is the "compactification of comprehension" to be understood -- given the degree of succinctness implied?

Compactified biological time? Following earlier research on biological time, rhythms and retention/protention a philosophical frame for proposed dimensions and mathematical structure of biological time are developed by Giuseppe Longo and Nicole Perret, Rhythms, Retention and Protention: philosophical reflections on a geometry for biological time, 2017). This enables the outlining of a geometry of specific biological time. To the usual dimension of an irreversible physical time they add a dimension specific to the internal rhythms of organisms, given the relative autonomy of biological rhythms with respect to physical time. This second dimension of time is "compactified" in a simple but rigorous mathematical sense.

"Grokking"? Given speculative anticipation of enlightened extraterrestrials, spiritual saviours or superintelligent AI, reference can be made for emergence of a new "cognitive species" in the light of the science fiction theme of "grok" (Authentic Grokking: emergence of Homo conjugens, 2003). As noted there, the term was introduced into science fiction by Robert Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land, 1961) as meaning literally "to drink" and metaphorically "to be one with" -- connoting understanding in a global sense involving intimate and exhaustive knowledge, possibly akin to synaesthesia. It is described by Heinlein as:

Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed -- to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science -- and it means as little to us (because of our Earthling assumptions) as color means to a blind man.

It has been taken up by cognitive scientists, philosophers and neuro-cosmologists -- as well by practioners of zen. Its German origin as verstehen implies a special form of sympathetic, experiential and intuitive understanding. Milo Clark (The Art of Grokking, 2000) summarizes his use of it, in contrast to the unwitting perpetuation of conditioned thought, as:

For my purposes, to grok extends beyond ordinary and even extraordinary levels of comprehension moving far into the vestigial core of being human and possessing, as well as using qualities rarely engaged these days. We may grok more from our reptilian brain segments than from the later evolutionary lobes. As we move beyond transcendent experiencing to genuine transmutations of consciousnesses [plural intended] of being, we move from understanding to grokking -- and then stay there, leaving behind all which is behind without, in any fundamental way, negating the qualities of knowing personally, individually and collectively the histories of humankind on this planet -- now quite lost, barely available through ordinary processes, education, etc. to most. Meditation practices pursued to realization, first levels of samadhi, for example, provide some sensing relevant to and transferable to ordinary, daily life which helps to break, to free from the lulling dualities dominating most.

Also spelt as "groking", Bill Hayashi has explained it as "moving from a merely conceptual, mental understanding to a personally felt and experiential knowing" (Groking: Transformational Knowing, 1997). For Obafemi Adewumi:

Groking occurs naturally when we practice whole body listening. To grok something is to grasp it: to get the marrow, the inner meaning, the crux, or the gist of it. It is to get the essence of a communication or sharing such that we are able to recreate it in our own language. By practising groking, we can all become contributors to the planetary evolution. Groking enables us to learn quickly and to share what we have learned with others. [more]

Homo conjugens? The earlier argument suggested that beyond Homo sapiens lies a species, Homo conjugens, that is fecund in ways that Homo sapiens could only project into biological reproduction. The emergence of Homo conjugens would then signal a new way of engaging and joining with the world (Emergence of Homo undulans -- through a "grokking" dynamic?, 2013). The characteristics of that species were described there under the following headings:

-- Paradox and ambiguity | Dualism and polarity | Intercourse | Consummation | Enactivism
-- Reflection-within | Reflection-without | Environment | Instrumentalism | Possession
-- Inter-personal relationships | Group activity | Commitment | Paradigm shift
-- Time-binding | Language | Self-constraint | Dynamic | Playfulness | Humour

Homo undulans? The argument can be developed further in the light of the case variously made for quantum consciousness (as noted above), or even the reframing of human identity as wave forms of some kind (Being a Waveform of Potential as an Experiential Choice: emergent dynamic qualities of identity and integrity, 2013; Being Neither a-Waving Nor a-Parting, 2013; Encountering Otherness as a Waveform: in the light of a wave theory of being, 2013).

In the quest for a more appropriate species qualifier -- beyond "conjugens", "Undulans" (deriving etymologically from "wave") is currently used in the distinction of a range of species. Of far greater relevance to the above argument is the description of Homo undulans as the theme of a penultimate chapter of the very detailed study by Daniel Dervin (Creativity and Culture: a psychoanalytic study of the creative process in the arts, sciences, and culture, 1990). Appropriately he relates this to a "third birth" of "self-creation", discussed at length in his final chapter. For Dervin, with respect to Homo undulans:

On his most rudimentary level, Einstein has taught us that, even more than vacuums, nature abhors straight lines. At least Relativity abhors them... So a straight line put under pressure, as it were, of scientific observation is recreated as a curve. Does the awareness of curvature also mark the beginning of creativity? One can be grateful, in any case, to Einstein for locating in the bending of light and the curving of space some faint correspondence to that "vain, diverse, and undulating object" that [Michel de] Montaigne described as man, adding "tis hard to find any constant and uniform judgment on him" (p. 244)

Through the appropriate emphasis on "undulating" (as a characteristic of "wave language"), and through a sense of embodied cognition, this usefully suggests cognitive implication in the body in movement -- most obviously dance, as noted above. This is consistent with the arguments of Mark Johnson (The Meaning of the Body: aesthetics of human understanding, 2007; The Body in the Mind: the bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason, 1987), and with George Lakoff (Philosophy in the Flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to western thought, 1999). Undulatory locomotion is the type of motion characterized by wave-like movement patterns that act to propel an animal forward and is the most primitive of vertebrate locomotor patterns.

"The Law of Undulation" is the title of a chapter in a work of C. S. Lewis (The Screwtape Letters, 1942, chapter 8) with respect to the Christian experience of life. It has been creatively visualized by Dani Herman (Law of Undulation, Prezi, 20 November 2012). It is a theme for numerous Christian commentaries (R. Penman Smith, The Law of Undulation, Morning by Morning, 21 March 2013; Deeper Waters, The Law of Undulation, ubfriends.org, 4 July 2010; William Femi Awodele, The Law of Undulation, 2011). The chapter notes:

Humans are amphibians -- half spirit and half animal.... As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation -- the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.

The "law" also features as central to the work of Japanese architect Ikuro Adachi at the Institute of Form-Undulatory Energy (The Law of Undulation: contemporary Earth culture and its future, 2007). "Undulation" is an explicit feature of a wide variety of fitness exercises.

Alternation: Homo undulans is also appropriately consistent with earlier arguments for recognition of the neglected role of "alternation" in sustainable development of any kind. These were presented in a collection of papers (Policy Alternation for Development, 1984). That on Metaphors of Alternation (1984) effectively offers further examples of "wave language" for which a case had been previously made (Liberation of Integration, Universality and Concord -- through pattern, oscillation, harmony and embodiment, 1980). It is also consistent with a more speculative development of the argument (Sensing Epiterrestrial Intelligence (SETI): embedding of "extraterrestrials" in episystemic dynamics? 2013). Of interest is the reconciliation in French of "otherness" with "alternation" through "alteritÉ" and alternance -- the latter being upheld as basic to the democratic process.

Homo undulans suggests the emergence of a human species that may effectively "dance with reality" in cognitive terms, in contrast with what would be perceived by that species as the current "harassment of reality", as previously argued (Beyond Harassment of Reality and Grasping Future Possibilities: learnings from sexual harassment as a metaphor, 1996). The metaphor has been explored by Gary Zukav (The Dancing Wu Li Masters: an overview of the new physics, 1979).

Jouncing and homo undulans? This argument suggests the possibility that jouncing, and the higher derivatives of time, might offer a means of exploring the nature of grokking and Homo undulans. Combined with the indications offered by wave theory, do these provide comprehensibl clues to compactification -- ironically rendered comprehensible to a degree through dance?

Beyond the termnology offered by physics -- snap, crackle, pop, lock, drop -- what terms from other frameworks would offer suggestive insight into those modalities beyond jounce? The study by Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander of the role of analogy in relation to creativity, notably with reference to Einstein, presumably provides guidance for such an any exploration (Surfaces and Essences: analogy as the fuel and fire of thinking, 2013).

The schematic by which this argument was introduced invites complexification in order to hold the implied cognitive parameters. One understanding in cognitive terms is promoted in terms of "spiral dynamics" (Don Edward Beck and Christopher C. Cowan, Spiral Dynamics: mastering values, leadership and change, 1996). As indicated above, various alternatives to the spiral and motion within it evoke complementary consideration -- suggested by the animations below.

Animations of complementary visual metaphors of cognitive holes -- including chiral alternatives

Triple helix and jouncing? Other than time dimensions, the fundamental implication of M (mass) and L (distance) can be understood as combining to frame the "cognitive hole". Of further potential relevance is the sense in which there are multiple intertwined spirals, inspired by DNA. Three spirals feature in the Triple Helix thesis (Henry Etzkowitz (Triple Helix: a new model of innovation, 2005). In that framing of triadic thinking interrelating government--academia-business as a vital key to innovation.

The question is whether triadic cognition can be generalized to a far higher degree as discussed separately (Triangulation of Incommensurable Concepts for Global Configuration, 2011; Cognitive Implications in 3D of Triadic Symbols Valued in 2D: representations of the triskelion in virtual reality and implications for quantum consciousness, 2017).

Further to his articulation of sociophysics (mentioned above), Paris Arnopoulos develops the argument otherwise as a means of engaging with the Triple Helix thesis (Braiding the Triadic Codex and Triple Helix: the sociophysics of nature-culture-nurture and academy-industry-polity, 2000). There he notes:

... this short paper interfaces with the triple helix paradigm by weaving its triadic social focus-locus with the power-wealth-data flows among its state-market-school centers. In this way we can concentrate on the most significant influence-finance-science transactions of the polity-industry-academy triangle.... In doing any job, force performs work: W = Fs =mas= mv2. This means that some work must be done in order to bring about social change. If that change is needed fast then one must exert a lot of power: P = W/t =mav = Fv. By this mathematical transformation, we have arrived at this crucial notion of power politics as well as physics. Social power however, unlike physical power, does not move inanimate objects but human masses to act far and fast.... Informative societies are negentropic because they increase systemic organization and decrease environmental degradation. Accumulating human knowledge also improves social control (C = a/t), since it regulates social change in a more enlightened manner. For that reason the exercise of responsible
social power requires strict political control (P = msC)....

Insightful possibilities of representing the Triple Helix in 3D are discussed separately (Cognitive osmosis through topological eversion and interlocking tori -- framing outside-inside otherwise, 2017; Psychosocial Learnings from the Spiral Form of Hurricanes: implications of the triple helix and the 3-fold triskelion as "cognitive cyclones"? 2017). The former includes a triple helix representation in 3D compared with a visual rendering of colliding black holes.

Strategically, with respect to the integrative challenge, does the relevance of Triple Helix model for governance and innovation depend on the capacity to "encompass jerk" through the kinds of control associated with jounce -- or higher derivatives of time?

Upper and lower spirals of opposite sense / chirality
Axial view	Side views

Given the focus on time in this argument, this is naturally complemented from a scientific perspective by mass and distance. The concern here is whether, under the extremes implied by the higher derivatives of time, both mass and distance then acquire other cognitive significance through their "generalization" -- as with time. It is in this sense that schemaaics can be used to evoke reflection on their relationship -- as in a triple helix. As with the continuing mystery of gravitational attraction, especially with respect to any "black hole", how is extremely powerful attraction to be understood -- given the nature of the experience of it and the so-called reality distortion field that it engenders?

Combining upper and lower helices of different chirality
Same sense/chirality (precluding "external" links)	Opposite sense/chirality (addition of "external" links)	Opposite sense/chirality (distinguishing "external" links)
Interactive models in 3D

Sustainability and resilience -- beyond jouncing? As argued, these terms point to the possibility of higher orders of governance -- suggestively framed by higher derivatives of time, however these are to be understood. As such they call into question any simplistic framing of growth given the challenges to its control. Whilst resilience is readily framed in terms of the adaptive cycle, the cognitive skills required for its navigation are themselves a challenge to any conventional framing of control. Presumably a degree of subtlety is rquired, perhaps exemplified by the traditional Chinese recognition that the role of the emperor is to "do nothing" -- however that is to be otherwise understood. Current understandings of "oversight" would seem to be fundamentally inadequate in those terms.

The need for other understandings of control and time is implied by tentative aspirations to a circular economy in a context of surrealistic breakdown of mutual confidence. Through the cultural significance of the complex circularity of the Wu Xing, this may provide particular advantages to the global leadership of China. Is that 5-fold dynamic to be recognized as a higher order cybernetic feedback system to be understood from the perspective of jouncing -- or beyond?

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