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Configurative design clues from the traditional Ouroboros, Tesla and the Tokamak
Problematic Sexual Paradoxes of Pandemic Response (Part #15)
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Ouroboros: The Ouroboros symbol continues to be widely valued in jewellery and iconography, with many imaginative variants in torcs, pendants and clasped bracelets. Of considerable significance in this respect is its appeal as a symbol by-passing a plethora of explanations and commentary. However it is the manner in which the intertwining of its elements is explored that merits recognition of an intuitive appreciation of forms of complexity understood through symmetry. Some forms recall the widely recognized symbol of infinity with which the ouroboros is closely associated. That on the right below recalls the association with the dream of August Kekulé enabling the discovery of the structure of the benzene molecule so fundamental to organic life.
| Contrasting depictions of the Ouroboros -- and its associations with infinity symbol | ||||
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Given that fundamental significance, there is a case for exploring how it might be rendered in 3D and animated, as explored separately (Cognitive Osmosis in a Knowledge-based Civilization: interface challenge of inside-outside, insight-outsight, information-outformation, 2017). This included sections on:
ITER Tokamak fusion reactor: The images below (left and centre) are reproduced from that exploration of design possibilities of potential strategic significance. As expressed in dynamic form, these can be compared with the current design challenges of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), as presented schematically in the image on the right. The arguments justifying such a comparison from a strategic perspective are developed separately (Enactivating a Cognitive Fusion Reactor: Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing (ITER-8) , 2006). The declared ambition of ITER is to replicating the fusion processes of the Sun to create energy on Earth.
Deirdre O'Donnell Nuclear Fusion Edges Closer: Chinese Tokamak facility can heat plasma to hotter than 6 Suns, Evolving Science, 22 November 2018)
Nuclear fusion's main disadvantage, at the moment, is that it is neither stable nor reliable. The process sounds so straightforward: heat the plasma until it starts the fusion reaction, and then keep it in an ouroboros-like state that is metaphorical and also physically literal in some respects. Indeed, the more successful type of fusion reactor today is a tokamak, which is a hollow doughnut of metal and high-tech equipment intended to keep a ring of plasma flowing around it in a high-energy confinement state (or 'H-mode').
However, even the most prominent tokamaks, such as ITER in France, cannot seem to keep this idealized state of plasma going for a long time. This is because a range of important factors acts on the plasma during reactions, which can sully the process of fusion, or disrupt it altogether.
Ironically in the light of symbolism explored here, so-called "impurity snakes" pose an exceptional problem in tokamak reactors,as described by Kathy Kincade (Taming Plasma Fusion Snakes, NERSC, 24 January 2014):
One commonly observed instability is the plasma density snake, named for its corkscrew-shaped appearance. Impurity snakes have been a regular feature in every major tokamak fusion experiment of the last 25 years....
The question to be highlighted is: does the convoluted set of strategies in response to the pandemic engender psychosocial "field effects" of which collective anxiety might be considered but one identifiable manifestation? If configured appropriately, as tentatively indicated above, do these effectively frame a pathway beyond the crisis? Is that pathway more sustainable if cognitively configured in the light of the design insights by which the potential of ITER is constrained?
| Ouroboros pattern: design schematic | Ouroboros pattern: virtual reality animation | Nuclear fusion reactor |
| Highlighting some design issues and questions of directionality | Screen shot with moving "heads" and trailing "bodies" (skins non-transparent) | Schematic of toroidal and poloidal fields of a Tokamak |
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| Interactive animation: X3D, VRML. Video mp4 | S. Li, H. Jiang, Z. Ren, C. Xu, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
Rotation of a magnetic field (Tesla): The question of relevance here is whether the remarkable discovery of Nikolas Tesla with regard to the rotation of magnetic fields has psychosocial implications, as discussed separately (Potential implications of alternation and rotation in psychosocial fields, 2014) in a more general exploration (Reimagining Tesla's Creativity through Technomimicry: psychosocial empowerment by imagining charged conditions otherwise, 2014)
Aspects of that argument were subsequently developed (Representation of Creative Processes through Dynamics in Three Dimensions , 2014).
The breakthrough in Tesla's thinking with respect to alternation/rotation is eloquently described by John J. O'Neill (Prodigal Genius: the life of Nikola Tesla, 1968):
What Tesla discovered was a means of creating a rotating magnetic field, a magnetic whirlwind in space which possessed fantastically new and intriguing properties. It was an utterly new conception. In direct-current motors a fixed magnetic field was tricked by mechanical means into producing rotation in an armature by connecting successively through a commutator each of a series of coils arranged around the circumference of a cylindrical armature. Tesla produced a field of force which rotated in space art high speed and was able to lock tightly into its embrace an armature which required no electrical connections. The rotating field possessed the property of transferring wirelessly through space, by means of its lines of force, energy to the simple closed circuit coils on the isolated armature which enabled it to build up its own magnetic field that locked itself into the rotating magnetic whirlwind produced by the field coils. The need for a commutator was completely eliminated. (pp. 50-51)
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