Fish-pond dynamics

In Quest of Mnemonic Catalysts -- for comprehension of complex psychosocial dynamics (Part #2)

---

[Parts: First | Prev | Next | Last | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx ]

---

The operation of each of the four attractors may be visualized in an interesting manner by hundreds of fish circling continuously throughout their lives in a circular (salmon) pond (or tank). It might be argued that:

• in engaging in that movement each fish "imagines" it is getting somewhere in pursuit of an "imagined" objective -- as in the imaginatique attractor [It has been noted that even with the smallest carp pond with only a single fish, placing a rock in the middle of the pond provides the fish with the illusion that by continuing to swim "between the banks" it is moving along a stream, around the rock -- whereas without the rock it remains unhealthily unmoving at the centre of the pond]
• in their actively competitive relationship with each other in the course of that movement, jostling for a degree of competitive advantage -- as in the game-playing of the irresolutique. [Of potential significance is the mathematical modelling of thematic academic discussion groups and institutional committees by Ron Atkin (Combinatorial Connectivities in Social Systems: an application of simplicial complex structures to the study of large organizations, 1977), in which a central undiscussed point functions like the rock in the carp pond -- as a focus around which unresolved comunication circles, Social organization determined by incommunicability of insights]

By extension it might be argued that this circular dynamic is evident:

• in the "vicious" feedback loops (cf Vicious cycles and loops; Examples of vicious problem cycles and loops), and the associated dynamic, intrinsic to the problematique, and well-characterized by the complex of interrelated problems that emerge in intensive fish farming. [Again appropriately modelled by the cognitive avoidance analyzed by Atkin, ensuring that they function like a psychodynamic tunnel whose pattern as a whole is not recognized as meaningful]
• in the "serendipitous" feedback loops (cf Feedback loops and co-arising) potentially intrinsic to the resolutique, both as a strategic response to the problematique and in the "spin" with which the response may be imaginatively reframed to imply its success -- perhaps well-characterized by the marketing "spin" associated with the widespread promotion of farmed salmon for consumption, despite concerns regarding the unhealthy qualities of the product so produced.

As a mnemonic aid, intensive fish farming raises useful questions regarding the extent to which human populations may be increasingly understood as "intensively farmed" -- in relation to the pattern of four attractors. Of particular interest are the implications of susceptibility to disease (cf Scare over farmed salmon safety) and of imbalance arising from difficult-to-control systemic interdependencies.

Are there other strategic options to transform and transcend such psychodynamics -- or is this a pattern into which humanity is entrapping itself? It is sobering to note the recognition of this pattern before the fall of the Roman Empire through the expression "bread and circuses" -- a phrase curiously reflected in fish-tank dynamics -- with Figure 2 then to be understood as a "four ring circus", rather than the traditional "three ring circus".

Ironically parallels with contemporary energy dependencies in the Roman Empire have been admirably documented by Thomas Homer-Dixon (The Upside of Down: catastrophe, creativity, and the renewal of civilization, 2006). In cybernetic terms, such an analysis could be reframed in terms of information dependencies of which the degree of information overload and information underuse is symptomatic. Inadequacies of vaunted "feedback" loops, whether in the "checks and balances" of democratic processes or of interactions with bureaucratic systems, are epitomized by waiting times on help lines for commercial products and emergency services. Fault intolerance is increasingly undermining the capacity of systems to degrade gracefully under conditions of failure -- as required by the resilience for which Homer-Dixon argues so strongly.

---

[Parts: First | Prev | Next | Last | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx ]