Juggling of concepts, theories and topics

Governance as "juggling" -- Juggling as "governance" (Part #7)

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The vocabulary of discourse establishes the relevance of a juggling perspective: "making a point", "taking a point", "ball in your court", "over to you", "missing the point", and "dropping the ball", as discussed more completely (Nature of the "ball" in game-playing and governance, 2016).

There are numerous references (in passing) to the challenge for academics and others of "juggling theories" and "juggling concepts". As a form of integration of multiple string theories, arguably M-theory required extensive preliminary creative "juggling" of the individual theories in metaphorical terms, with the resultant theory constituting an exemplar of juggling in a more articulated sense. In that light, however, Oscar Heath asks the question Are string theorists the smartest group of people on the planet? (Quora, 20 September 2005), and provides a preliminary answer:

However, I'd find it hard to say that string theorists were much smarter than, for instance, engineers....They could take over the world if they really wanted to. Seriously though, to my mind that ability to juggle theoretical and practical considerations at quite an advanced level, and constantly be adjusting the theory to fit the application, combined with the creativity required to get anywhere is easily on par with the task of string theory.

In this case "juggling" is exploited as a metaphor to describe the subtlety with which a degree of relationship is established -- and potentially sustained dynamically -- between seemingly incommensurable insights. Of related interest are references to "juggling arguments", "juggling points", and including "points of view" (Joyce Chapman and Jeff Essic, Juggling Points and Polygons: GIS Researchers' Metadata and Search Needs (Journal of Library Metadata, 11, 2011, 1). Where three such insights are "juggled", this could be considered comparable to engaging mathematically with the law of the excluded middle or the classical 3-body problem of physics.

Indicative examples are provided by:

• Daniel Rancour-Laferriere: Juggling Poetics, Semiotics and Psychoanalysis (1978).
• Petra Jansen, LÉonie F. Lange and Martin Heil: The influence of juggling on mental rotation performance in children (Semantic Scholar, 2011)
• Sanket Patel: Juggling: What are the different processes taking place when learning motor skills? (Quora, 11 July 2015)
• Jonathan Hare: Some Notes on Juggling (The Creative Science Center, 1999)
• Olivia Fox Cabane and Judah Pollack: How To Train Your Brain To Have More Breakthrough Ideas (Fast Company)
• Stephen A. Mitchell: Juggling Paradoxes: Commentary on the Work of Jessica Benjamin (Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 1 2000, 3, pp. 251-269).

In the light of the analysis of juggling patterns, this highlights the question as to how many patterns of discourse there might be, whether 2-person or multi-person -- given the cognitive and coordination constraints -- and usefully illustrated by the 46 ball-passing animations offered by Wikipedia? Are there dialogue records to be recognized by analogy with those of juggling noted above?

As noted by Polster in a discussion of enumerating and creating new interesting patterns:

Using algorithms that are based on results in this book, computers have been programmed to enumerate all juggling sequences satisfying any conceivable set of constraints. Many new interesting juggling sequences have been found in this way. Since we now know "all" possible juggling sequences, what remains to be done is to identify those that, in themselves, are interesting from either a juggler's or a mathematician's point of view (pp. 137-138)

With respect to patterns of dialogue, Polster's subsequent comment is especially valuable: Also, if you want to find out how you can smoothly move from one pattern to the next, tools such as state graphs are very helpful . One accessible summary is provided by Harri Varpanen (Toss and Spin Juggling State Graphs, 12 May 2014). Use of "spin" in that title might offer particular insights to a world in which dialogue is increasingly characterized by "spin".

Notably using the weaving metaphor, to which Polster alludes through braiding, dialogue can be explored otherwise (Interweaving Thematic Threads and Learning Pathways: noonautics, magic carpets and wizdomes, 2010; Varieties of Dialogue by Number: experimental overview by number of perspectives represented, 1998). Dialogue processes have been configured in 3D patterns of tensegrity in the light of insights from management cybernetics by Stafford Beer (Beyond Dispute: The Invention of Team Syntegrity, 1994). The resulting process of syntegration is described by Martin Pfiffner (From Workshop to Syntegration: the genetic code of effective communication, 2004).

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