Psychodynamics of point-making as autopoiesis

Going Nowhere through Not-knowing Where to Go (Part #5)

Identity as both point and sphere: As argued here, an individual is a mysteriously experiential "point identity" -- both to the individual and to others. The individual necessarily tends to engage from that perspective with the universe for explanatory purposes -- however complex may appear the dynamics of the distinctions experienced from that perspective.

As indicated above, there is considerable ambiguity to being constrained as a "point identity", when that identity is more readily and commonly experienced through the integrative globality and extensiveness of a sphere -- the "world" within which one lives. There may even be a sense in which there is a degree of alternation between identification with point and with sphere -- the experiential point "expanding" to a sphere from its centre according to circumstances. Any such expansion is then readily associated with a sense of "fulfillment". The relation may also be characterized by a descriptive paradox analogous to that of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (cf Garrison Sposito, Does a generalized Heisenberg Principle operate in the social sciences? Inquiry, 1969).

Richer cognitive significance has been associated with more complex geometrical and topological forms, as in the work of Jacques Lacan, R. D. Laing (Knots, 1970) or Steven M. Rosen (Topologies of the Flesh: a multidimensional exploration of the lifeworld, 2006, Dimensions of Apeiron: a topological phenomenology of space, time, and individuation, 2004). This suggests the potential of an array of ways of using such metaphors to enable more appropriate understandings of identity (Intercourse with Globality through Enacting a Klein bottle: cognitive implication in a polysensorial "lens", 2009; Engendering Invagination and Gastrulation of Globalization: reconstructive insights from the sciences and the humanities, 2010).

Point making: Understood in this way, the question is how the individual (as a "point-identity") then "makes a point", thereby asserting identity -- through a degree of identification with the point so made. This may well be as a strange reflection of the identity of the originator, or some form of projection into the point so made. Suggestive of a heliocentric "solar" process is the work of Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander (Surfaces and Essences: analogy as the fuel and fire of thinking, 2013).

The psychological experience of the processes is then reminiscent of conception, giving birth, or engaging with whatever it is hoped to leave as a legacy of living -- "leaving a mark". There is necessarily a contrast between the form the point takes in the eyes of the beholder and the form with which the originator identifies.

Given the pattern offered by the emergence of the planets to form a solar system, there is a case for exploring "point making" by an individual as one of engendering "planets", as in studies of the formation and evolution of the Solar System. These "planets" then become the "geocentric" vehicles of distinct and contrasting expressions of identity -- emanations of a "heliocentric" identity whose generative nature remains necessarily elusive and inaccessible.

Individual as universe: There is a challenge to comprehension of the complex richness of such a context. There is therefore a case for using understanding of the universe which originally inspired astronomical reflection and the quest for explanatory order (Towards an Astrophysics of the Knowledge Universe: from astronautics to noonautics? 2006; Astrophysical metaphor, 2012). This is notably consistent with arguments of such as Joseph Campbell (The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: metaphor as myth and as religion, 1986), as noted above, or of Henryk Skolimowski (The Participatory Mind: a new theory of knowledge and of the universe, 1995). Current insights of astrophysics have the universe originating mysteriously from a point -- although it remains unclear how that originating point was originally made "from nothing" (Lawrence M. Krauss, A Universe from Nothing: why there is something rather than nothing, 2012).

It is of course common to refer to a person as "living within their own universe" -- perhaps with the world understood as "revolving around" the person. For many life may well be framed in those terms. It may also offer creative possibilities for reframing engagement with life, as separately suggested (Being the Universe: a metaphoric frontier, 1999; The Territory Construed as the Map: in search of radical design innovations in the representation of human activities and their relationships, 1979). In particular this may enable the transformation of the art of conversation, as separately discussed (Proposed universes and their conversation potential, 2012).

As indicated there recent research by Stephen Hawking and colleagues (Accelerated Expansion from Negative Lambda, 2012), has shown that the universe may have the same surreal geometry as some of art's most mind-boggling images (Lisa Grossman, Hawking's 'Escher-verse' could be theory of everything, New Scientist, 9 June 2012). This offers a way of reconciling the geometric demands of string theory, a still-hypothetical "theory of everything", with the universe as observed -- through a negatively-curved Escher-like geometry (essentially a hyperbolic space).

Their results rely on a mathematical twist previously considered impossible, namely the use of a negative cosmological constant rather than a positive one. The new approach provides a description of "all the possible universes that could have been -- including ones in which the solar system never formed, or in which life might have evolved quite differently". Making conventional use of a positive cosmological constant, it had proven impossible to describe universes that were "anything more than clunky approximations to reality." A plethora of universes have now been generated from wave functions with negative cosmological constants.

With the individual understood as a universe, of which s/he may indeed be assumed to be the centre, the riches of reflection on the nature, origin and shape of that universe, as articulated by physics, can be explored as ordering templates for experience. Insights into the origins of galaxies, stars and planets may then be used to that end. The lifecycle of stars -- from origin to final collapse - is then suggestive of how the individual might consider ordering the experience of a lifetime.

Understandings of universe as a source of insight: It is the subtlety of insight of astrophysics regarding comprehension of the universe that calls for comparison with the insight through which individual identity is comprehended. Why should it be assumed that the subtlety of individual identity would be less than that of the universe -- as comprehended through the best of human insight? A more readily accessible metaphor of possible value is the emergence of spherical bubbles from point sources in a heated fluid.

Such metaphors are indicative of a mysterious originating "pressure" driving the process of "point making" -- of which the reproductive insight, and its surrogates, are the most evident consequence in the case of the individual. The process of "point making" and the sustainability of identity are then strangely entangled. The mystery may extend to the seemingly fundamental drive to destroy the identities of "others" and alternatives.

Point-making and identity in the light of stellar evolution: Why are "light" and "brilliance" such acceptable metaphors in communication processes and the appreciation of insight? Why are celebrities in many domains termed "stars"? Why the preoccupation with "visibility" in the promotion of people and initiatives? Why the value and meaning attached to "enlightenment"? Why the ambiguity and concern relating to the "dark" (Enlightening Endarkenment: selected web resources on the challenge to comprehension, 2005).

As discussed in an earlier document with respect to cognitive engagement in the light of stellar evolution, there are other intriguing patterns to be derived from astrophysics (Towards an Astrophysics of the Knowledge Universe: from astronautics to noonautics? 2006).

How does the array of relatively simple reactions sustain the complexity and coherence of a sun? Can consciousness be understood in terms of the patterns of solar reactions through which light and heat are generated for mundane life -- in the light of Cybernetics and Human Knowing (A Journal of Second Order Cybernetics, Autopoiesis and Cyber-Semiotics) ? What then is to be understood by hydrogen and helium?

Could the conscious life then be usefully understood in terms of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (showing the luminosities of the stars plotted against their surface temperatures) and its significance for the process of stellar evolution?

Is the initial phase of conscious evolution a contraction of the preconscious (the protostar) from the collective unconscious (the interstellar gas)? In the case of stellar evolution, this stage typically lasts millions of years. Half the gravitational potential energy released by the collapsing protostar is radiated away; half goes into increasing the temperature of the forming star. This might echo insights from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Can temperature be understood as degree of self-awareness? Eventually the temperature becomes high enough for the fusion of hydrogen to form helium. The star then enters its longest period in stellar evolution, known as the main sequence in the context of the Hertzsrpung-Russell diagram. As the star's helium content builds up, the core contracts and releases gravitational energy, which heats up the core and increases the rate of hydrogen consumption. The increased reaction rates cause the stellar envelope to expand and cool, and the star becomes a red giant. Eventually, the contracting stellar core will reach temperatures in excess of 100 million degrees. Helium burning then sets in, and the star starts shrinking in size.

In the further course of evolution, the star may become unstable, possibly ejecting some of its mass and becoming an exploding nova or supernova or a pulsating variable star. The end phase of a star depends on its mass. A low-mass star may become a white dwarf; an intermediate-mass star may become a neutron star; and a high-mass star may undergo complete gravitational collapse and become a black hole. Are some of these patterns not reminiscent of the possible final stages of life of media personalities -- especially movie "stars", but also the geniuses of our era?

Autopoiesis through point-making: The argument suggests a curious relationship between the impulse to make points in some form or another (including "scoring" as more generally understood to encompass both competitive success and sexual conquest) and the self-engendering or self-creation explored as autopoiesis (Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, Autopoiesis and Cognition: the Realization of the Living, 1973; Kyrill A. Goosseff, Autopoeisis and meaning: a biological approach to Bakhtin's superaddressee, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 23, 2010, 2).

Autopoiesis, sharing etymology with poetry, emphasizes the challenge of eliciting some form of dynamic harmonious elegance valued by both science and the arts (cf. Ira Livingston, Between Science and Literature: an introduction to autopoetics. 2006). The pattern, to be recognized here as interrelating the verses, has been named by Gregory Bateson as a "meta-pattern". It may be understood as a comprehension of the interweaving of correspondences between the insights embodied in the disparate verses, as separately discussed (Interweaving Thematic Threads and Learning Pathways, 2010; Theories of Correspondences -- and potential equivalences between them in correlative thinking, 2007).

Such harmony is also considered fundamental to the nature of order as experienced by humans, as clarified by Christopher Alexander (Harmony-Seeking Computations: a science of non-classical dynamics based on the progressive evolution of the larger whole, International Journal for Unconventional Computing (IJUC), 2009) with respect to "15 transformations", as discussed separately (Harmony-Comprehension and Wholeness-Engendering: eliciting psychosocial transformational principles from design. 2010).

Main menu

Directions

You are here

Main menu

Search form

Directions

You are here

Psychodynamics of point-making as autopoiesis