4-wheeled drive vehicle

In Quest of Mnemonic Catalysts -- for comprehension of complex psychosocial dynamics (Part #14)

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Another mnemonically useful approach is to associate the elements of Figure 4, and of Figure 2, with the construction and operation of a vehicle:

• wheels: the four attractors of Figure 2 may be seen as the "wheels" of such a vehicle;
• axles: the relationship between pairs of opposite attractors, as suggested by the hyperbolic elements, may be seen as the "axles" necessary to support a superstructure;
• engine: the relationship between the alternatively attractive and repulsive function of the four distinct attractors, is indicative of a cyclic relationship of which the elliptic element is usefully indicative as an "engine" performing work -- a "work cycle" typically fundamental to any engine and notably to the generation of energy through sustainable consumption of fuel and waste products; a distinction might be made between the transmission of drive power to two or four wheels paired by axles
• direction: directing the movement of any such "motorised" vehicle requires a capacity to sense direction usefully suggested by the paraboloic element whether projecting light in a direction (as typical of a headlight) or resolving information through bringing it to a focus (as with parabolic antennae). Any change in direction might also then be frutifully associated with a fifth wheel -- a "steering wheel", whether it acts on two or four wheels paired by axles.

The relationship between these clarifies a shift in function, especially in the form of a progressive "dematerialisation", through which a higher degree of order is successively imposed on the preceding "levels" by, for example:

• constraining "wheels" into pairs through "axles" -- through recognition of an axis of symmetry;
• reframing the attractors as necessary components (or phases) of a work cycle, requiring that each attractor alternate between an attractive and repulsive mode in some synchronized manner;
• reframing "wheels", "axle", and "engine" into elements of a learning-action cycle necessary to the management of a vehicle by an operator -- notably as extensively analyzed by Arthur Young (The Geometry of Meaning, 1978), developer of the Bell helicopter

This example suggests the need appropriately to juxtapose metaphors based on those various technologies that are devised in society -- in order appropriately to sustain the cognitive frameworks capable of counteracting issues arising from those technologies or from their interaction.

More generally this highlights how specific technologies are effectively developed ("explicated") in a manner "unconscious" of their future problematic implications -- but how nevertheless, as metaphors, they imply the corresponding cognitive insights necessary to enhance appropriately a collective, conscious resolutique. The technologies thus "prefigure" the insights required to integrate them into a sustainable psychosocial system.

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