Imaginative depiction of the cognitive challenge

Comprehension of Numbers Challenging Global Civilization (Part #6)

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There is a curious mirroring, potentially of great significance, between the worldwide (popular) fascination with football and the dramatic global challenges of the future with which the world is believed (by an elite minority) to be faced. This is evident in the tragic complementarity between:

• the engagement worldwide with football -- evocative of belief in the "spirit of the game" -- as having a unique coherence that is collectively significant and might be said to transcend and encompass ordinary modes of cognition as well as national and cultural boundaries (Nick Green, The Spirit of Football in an Image and a Poem, 100 Percent Soccer, 18 March 2009)
• the focus on globality and globalization which might well be described in terms of "kicking the globe around", with relatively little concern for its condition and with only an (often token) aspiration to global coherence and engagement; topics of global significance might be fruitfully understood as "kicked around" like a football -- typically with respect to a polarized arena over which two competing factions compete.

To these might be be added the consideration of integrative globality in religious terms.

Symbolic cups: There is a potentially fruitful relationship to be explored in visual terms, namely that between the symbolic role of a cup in different traditions, its transformation into the goal of sporting endeavour, and its form in relation to the symbolism of global collective endeavour. Visually the cup can also be understood as holding, or signifying, both a relation between one and zero, and that suggested by its fundamental sexual connotations. Global public interest in the FIFA World Cup could be readily described as an orgasm of enthusiasm and consensus which world religions and global governance can only envy.

It would seem that many religions attach particular significance to a sacred cup: Christianity (Chalice) Judaism (Kiddush cup), Islam (Islamic cup). The Kapala as a chalice-like vessel, associated with transformation, was traditionally made from a human skull and used as a ritual implement in both Hindu Tantra and Buddhist Tantra (Sean Robsville (Cauldron, Chalice and Grail Symbolism in Buddhism and Celtic Wicca, 22 November 2009). Relevant to this argument is the manner in which its significance may be inadequately understood, as separately argued (Subunderstanding of the nature of the "Chalice", 2011).

The question to be asked is how a diversity of sacred "cups", honoured within a diversity of religions, was somehow displaced to such a degree, on a global scale, by various "world cups" -- most notably that of the FIFA World Cup. The latter, as a secular cup of "football as a religion", could be said to echo suspiciously elements of those of the religions. It could be assumed that a cup held sacred in this way acquires that memorable significance through holding and symbolising the relationship between various levels of subtlety and complexity of which the pattern of numbers is itself indicative.

Laurel wreaths: A complementary dimension is introduced into the following visual experiment by recalling the manner in which laurel wreaths (or olive branches) have been used to honour those variously victorious -- in the Greek tradition of the Olympic Games and in the Roman Empire. A related appreciation of values has been incorporated into the recent symbolism of the United Nations institutions. The latter use is indicated in the image below (left).

The leaf branches can however also be employed to frame the common depiction of a plenary assembly with the political "colours" of those participating (centre image below). The approach can be taken further to frame the target of such global plenary endeavours -- typical of resolutions regarding global plans, as with the Millennium goals, as suggested by the image on the right (below)..

Global schematics using olive leaf branch framing of UN institutional emblems
The globe	A plenary assembly	A target

Composite for the future? In the light of the association between sacred cups and those now rendered "sacred" as the target of global sporting endeavour, visual complementarity can be taken further through juxtaposing the sacred and sporting cups -- as below -- but separated by a schematic composite (centre below). The latter is designed to hold a pattern of emergent significance, namely of the intangible nature traditionally associated both with any sacred cup and that to which reference is made in the case of the "spirit" of global football (as represented by the FIFA Cup).

Complementary symbols?
Sacred cup - chalice	Composite schematic?	FIFA World Cup

Ball movement as a focus of attention: Using available visualization techniques, the composite above is designed to suggest that the significance emerges through a dynamic, namely the pattern of football movement within the set of games of the World Cup -- the totality of passing patterns. As configured in the central image above, the totality of these passes engenders an intangible global form -- implied by the emergent central circle. This is suggestive of a globe in three dimensions -- as with the cups on each side -- but subtly contained within the cup of crossed branches. The process of emergence is indicated in the animation in the subsequent set of images (below).

It is appropriate to note that the attention of spectators worldwide is focused on the movement of the ball -- drawn onwards by it -- in part because of what it implies, namely what it promises and to which it may lead. The pattern of movement is indicative of the existence of a subtle global attractor to which spectators are sensitively attentive. There is a sense in which following the set of games is effectively following the emergence of a global form whose "emptiness" is appropriate and consistent with what is associated with the sacred.

It is curious that current capacity to track the movement of the ball between players in any game is developing to the point at which complete maps of passing movement can be maintained in real time and for exploration thereafter (Hugo Sarmento, et al., Match Analysis in Football: a systematic review, Journal of Sports Sciences, 2014; Carl Bialik, The People Tracking Every Touch, Pass And Tackle in the World Cup, 10 June 2014; Christopher Carling, et al., Handbook of Soccer Match Analysis: a systematic approach to improving performance, 2007). In a typical game, as many as 2,500 actions are coded, synchronized with video clips and entered into a database, available to broadcasters and coaches for their analysis.

How such maps from the totality of games might be fruitfully combined is a design issue rather than a technical issue. Cynically the suggestion could even be made that the evolution of computer-enhanced satellite surveillance by intelligence agencies could readily be adapted to a useful purpose by tracking ball movement in the totality of World Cup games (From ECHELON to NOLEHCE: enabling a strategic conversion to a faith-based global brain, 2007).

Animation of pattern of ball movement: The following set of images derives from an experimental animation (left-hand image below). The development of the pattern, as described above, is indicated by screen shots of later stages in the animation (in the centre and right below). These are provided for the convenience of those viewing this document in hardcopy form. The version above (centre) is in fact from a much later iteration, not included in the animation below.

The point to be stressed is that the emphasis is on a dynamic from which anticipation significance progressively emerges -- a significance anticipated by spectators through being attentively drawn by ball movement in the games. To whatever degree it may be implied, this dimension is absent from static images framed by laurel branches -- proposed as being indicative of attractive globality.

Animation of progressive emergence from ball-passing movement (in composite schematic above)
Animation (initial stage)	Screen shot (mid-animation)	Screen shot (final stage)

Technical comment: The above simple animation, although crude in technical terms, constitutes a degree of proof of concept. The animation was produced using Adobe Illustrator (potentially enabling use of scalable vector graphics). It could easily be improved by employing additional interactive design features and options (a more indicative range of colours, attention to contrasting passing patterns, shift in control of ball between teams, etc). It could be readily transformed into a smartphone app -- possibly with real time updating. Limitations such as the jerkiness of the above animations could be exploited to suggest a degree of liveliness.

Curiously, in any effort to render the design more reflective of the dynamics of the World Cup, it is appropriate to note that some obvious figures appear to be lacking -- despite the quantity and quality of statistics on players and games. The focus is on performance for training purposes and the probability of winning in the light of the profitability through gambling and otherwise. With respect to the total number of ball movements -- as passes -- there is seemingly no sense of the number of passes for the totality of games. Some figures suggest a figure of approximately 450 passes per game per team, some 75% of which may be successful.

Application to global plenary debate: The focus on the movement of the ball between players could also be adapted to focus on the movement of debating points between the "players" in any plenary assembly (or set of assemblies) -- as suggested by the earlier image and the extensive work on passing patterns (Mark Weston, Passing Patterns, 2006; Athalie Redwood-Brown, Passing patterns before and after goal scoring in FA Premier League Soccer, International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 2008; Association for Soccer Education and Teaching, Passing Patterns and Small Sided Games, 2008; Alan Reifman, Network Analysis of Basketball Passing Patterns II, 2006).

Perhaps of greater relevance is why the evolution of football movement and mapping are further advanced than that with respect to debate points -- despite the tools elaborated for discourse analysis. In a web context, this has has only recently become a preoccupation (Implementing the Argument Web, October 2013; Laying the foundations for a World Wide Argument Web; Constructing Knowledge through Argument: Wikipedia and Worldwide Argument Web, 3 December 2010; Infrastructure for the Argument Web released). This focused has been preceded by the work of Debategraph within the Global Sensemaking network.

Such developments highlight the future possibility of focusing on the question as to "who tracks global debate", namely the patterns through which "the ball" moves as points are made in plenary assemblies. If it is done for football, why is it not done for debate -- especially since debates are recorded, transcribed and subject to electronic surveillance? How do strategic debating points get "made" and points "scored"? How many are made in parliamentary debate? What happens when the "ball" is moved into the "other court"? (John F. Abel, Rock In The Box: the art of getting the ball into the other court, 1970).

It is appropriate to note the widespread use of "scoring" as a metaphor with regard to the manner in which debating points are made "against" the opposing side. This could be understood more generally as the manner in which one side "teaches a lesson" to the other -- another metaphor employed. This is extended in relation to the process of "learning" from the other -- as a consequence of such scoring.

More intriguing in comparing the sacred and secular cups, what is the elusive globality that is engendered and elicited (in principle at least) by plenary debate? Is this intangible quality to be compared to connectivity and consensus -- with the central "emptiness" contained by the configuration of debate being the as yet unrecognized key to global governance, as may be variously discussed (In Quest of Sustainability as Holy Grail of Global Governance, 2011; Interrelating Cognitive Catastrophes in a Grail-chalice Proto-model: implications of WH-questions for self-reflexivity and dialogue, 2006).

Of relevance is the argument of Gregory Bateson for recognition of a meta-pattern:

The pattern which connects is a meta-pattern. It is a pattern of patterns. It is that meta-pattern which defines the vast generalization that, indeed, it is patterns which connect. (Mind and Nature: a necessary unity, 1979)

And it is from this perspective that Bateson warns: Break the pattern which connects the items of learning and you necessarily destroy all quality (1979, pp. 8-11).

In exploring a design correspondence to the sacred and secular cups, a base has been provided for the composite schematic (above). The design of the base associates the rich symbolism of the vesica piscis with the cup form. Potentially relevant implications of that symbolism have been speculatively discussed separately (The-O Ring and The Bull Ring as Spectacular Archetypes, 2014). Incorporating a "base" in this way offers a reminder of the extent to which the laurel wreath configuration, as favoured by the United Nations, is fundamentally "ungrounded". This contrasts with the unquestionable groundedness of cups -- as sacred to the believers of religions, or as "sacred" within the "religion" of football.

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