Perspective: thinking globally and acting locally -- from epicycles to hypercycles?

Local Reality of Overcrowding -- Global Unreality of Overpopulation (Part #10)

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Adequacy of a global slogan? The slogan "Think globally, act locally" has long been used to urge people to consider both the health of the entire planet and to take action in their own communities and cities. As noted by Wikipedia:

Long before governments began enforcing environmental laws, individuals were coming together to protect habitats and the organisms that live within them. These efforts are referred to as grassroots efforts. They occur on a local level and are primarily run by volunteers and helpers. "Think Globally, Act Locally" originally began at the grassroots level, however, it is now a global concept with high importance. It is not just volunteers who take the environment into consideration. It is corporations, government officials, education system, and local communities....

It is not only corporations that are acknowledging the importance of environmental issues, but also the education system. Government officials and school boards across the world are beginning to develop a new way of teaching. Globalization is now thought of as an important concept to understanding the world.... The term is also used in business strategy, where multinational corporations are encouraged to build local roots. This is sometimes expressed by converging the words "global" and "local" into the single word " glocal", a term used by several companies...

The slogan has been a notably feature of initiatives of the United Nations, most notably Agenda 21, as formulated at the Earth Summit of 1992. Implementation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals has been described in terms of "Localizing the SDGs" to highlight the role of local institutions and local actors.

Given the questionable achievements to date of initiatives inspired by the slogan, it could now be questioned whether it is oversimplistic -- obscuring dimensions which merit attention in governance more fit for purpose.

Perceiving locally and comprehending globally? This argument raises the question: is "global" is an unrealistic abstraction for many, in contrast with the reality of "local"? How then might the dilemmas to which they give rise be more appropriately reconciled?

There is a case for deriving insight from how "global" has been experienced and understood "locally" over millennia -- and how this "mistaken" understanding was rectified through the Copernican revolution. The contrast is usefully illustrated by the depiction of planetary epicycles from a geocentric perspective (below left), as compared with the heliocentric perspective (below centre). The geocentric perspective is necessarily "local" -- within the more "global" framework offered by the heliocentric perspective. Readily forgotten however is that it is the local perspective which is more real in experiential terms to the inhabitants of Earth. The heliocentric perspective is an abstraction -- readily held to be unreal, however greater and more rational is its explanatory power.

Examples of contrasting perspectives
Planetary epicycles	Heliocentric model	Hypercycle
Reproduced from Wikipedia	Reproduced from Wikipedia	Reproduced from Principia Cybernetica

Hypercycles? The familiar heliocentric model offers the implication that humanity has comprehended adequately the nature of the global system within which the local preoccupations of the planet are embedded. The inadequacy of global governance suggests that further thinking is required to encompass the experiential complexity. Systemic models of many kinds are proposed, ranging from those of astrophysics to those of fundamental physics. Those of the psychosocial sciences and religion also have their appeal, however limited.

In clarifying comprehension of the relation between local and global, the argument here can be developed through reference to the hypercycle. As developed in chemistry, this is an abstract model of organization of self-replicating molecules connected in a cyclic, autocatalytic manner, introduced in 1971 by Manfred Eigen and subsequently further extended in collaboration with Peter Schuster (The Hypercycle: A Principle of Natural Self-Organization. 1979):

Topologic methods are used to characterize a particular class of self-replicative reaction networks: the hypercycles. The results show that the properties of hypercycles are sufficient for a stable integration of the information contained in several self-replicative units. Among the catalytic networks studied, hypercyclic organization proves to be a necessary prerequisite for maintaining the stability of information and for promoting its further evolution.

As illustrated by the diagram (above right) in the entry in Principia Cybernetica (Hypercycles), the commentary includes:

The hypercycle is a self-reproducing macromolecular system, in which RNAs and enzymes cooperate in the following manner...: there are RNA matrices ( Ii ); i-th RNA codes i-th enzyme Ei (i = 1,2,...,n); the enzymes cyclically increase RNA's replication rates, namely, E1 increases replication rate of I2 , E2 increases replication rate of I3 , ..., En increases replication rate of I1 . In addition, the mentioned macromolecules cooperate to provide primitive translation abilities, so the information, coded in RNA-sequences, is translated into enzymes, analogously to the usual translation processes in biological objects. The cyclic organization of the hypercycle ensures its structure stability. For effective competition, the different hypercycles should be placed in separate compartments.

The insight from chemistry has been variously explored in relation to psychosocial organization (System Dynamics, Hypercycles and Psychosocial Self-organization: exploration of Chinese correlative understanding, 2010). The hypercycle proposed by Eigen and Schuster for the emergence of life has been been extrapolated to the evolution of language. Indicative references include:

• John Padgett: The Emergence of Simple Ecologies of Skill: a hypercycle approach to economic organization (In: The Economy as an Evolving Complex System II_, Eds. Arthur, Durlauf, and Lane. SFI Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, Vol. XXVII, Addison-Wesley, 1997, pp. 199-221).
• Wolfgang Wildgen: Semiotic Hypercycles Driving the Evolution of Language (Axiomathes, 18, 2008, 1, pp. 91-116)
• Tom Froese, Takashi Ikegami and Nathaniel Virgo: The Behavior-Based Hypercycle: from parasitic reaction to symbiotic behavior (Artificial Life, 13, 2012, pp. 457-464)

*** circular economy

The hypercycle approach is potentially significant in relation to the original consideration by Erich Jantsch of cyclic self-organization of social systems (The Self-Organizing Universe: scientific and human implications of the emerging paradigm of evolution, 1980). As discussed in a commentary on Embracing Difference: system dynamics for the Global Strategies Project in the above-mentioned Encyclopedia, Jantsch draws attention to the work of Manfred Eigen in molecular genetics, namely the question of how new information originates. This is a general problem of evolution, which Jantsch relates to development and to learning.

With respect to the subsequent development of Eigen's thinking, William S. Dockens III notes:

Psychohistory is mental science's approach to evolution. Instead of Darwin's theory, micro geneticists Eigen and Winkler's (1983) Life/Death Game is evolution's conceptual framework. All organisms, including Homo sapiens, take part in a game that resembles wei-ch'i (Japanese go). In the Life/Death Game, survival is a process rather than a goal, strategies are learned and inherited, both at the same time. Laws of "Chance" and (Necessity) operate simultaneously. The result is an existence that is not strictly determined, but determined more or less. Organisms adapt to the laws of the Life/Death Game by means of rules. According to Eigen and Winkler, it is the ability to adapt by means of rules that constitutes "understanding". In fact, only the rules can be understood (The Asimov Scenario: predicting outcomes of the struggle for cyberspace, 2000).

In a subsequent study, Dockens argues

Like a powerful, hardly perceptible wall, the psychoanthropological barrier lies between the group formulations that characterize social psychology, sociology, and ethnology and the subjective reasoning that characterize individual modes of thought. More obviously, but equally as formidable, are the epistemological differences separating researchers within each of the scientific disciplines. As a consequence, humanities, behavioral sciences and biological sciences in general, and general systems in particular, lack the connectivity necessary for the broad unified approach that is prerequisite to applying multidisciplinary research to complex social, personal, ethnic, and gender problems. Eigen and Winkler's game theory optimization, together with recent developments in mathematics, microgenetics and ethnology, make it possible to integrate the social physics of Nicolas Rashevsky and the game theory formulations of Anatol Rapoport to produce Synchrony, a unified approach, which though not a seamless web, comes as close to a seamless web as is theoretically possible. But in accepting Synchrony, behavioral scientists must first learn to play go, then adopt the concepts of dual cognition, dual time scales, self-reference, chance and necessity. Philosophers and ethnologists must deal with ecological "optimizations" of ethics and cultures. And, finally, as far as groups are concerned, all will have to give up permanent hierarchies, adopt a "feminine" mode of reasoning as optimal, then accept behavioral science's role of "Guardian of Time's Feminine Arrow". (Time's Feminine Arrow:  a behavioral ecological assault on cultural and epistemological barriers, Behavioral Science, 2007)

The question is how the new information emerges to provide the basis for any new patterns of ordering. Any given language, or "answer domain", effectively functions like a self-replicating ecosystem. Ramon Margalef (Perspectives in Ecological Theory, 1968) had described the evolution of such ecosystems as a process of information accumulation. Each such system seeks information from the environment, but only to use it to prevent the assimilation of more new information. Novelty is continuously transformed into confirmation. The question is how any new order can emerge under such circumstances. Hypercycle is used by Eigen to denote any such new order, namely a closed circle of distinct transformatory or catalytic processes in which one or more participants act as autocatalysts.

The above set of images is indicative of the possibility of considering the interrelated set of psychosocial conditions represented by the set of hexagrams as based on what amounts to a hypercycle. As noted in a consideration of fractals by Giuseppe Damiani (Evolution and Regulation of Metabolic Networks, in: Gabriele A. Losa, Danilo Merlini, Theo F. Nonnenmacher, Ewald R. Weibel, Fractals in Biology and Medicine, 2005):

The concepts of a metabolic hypercycle and of binary processes would greatly facilitate people's intuition about the dynamics of physical and biological systems. A surprising aspect of the proposed model is its similarity with ancient ideas of Hermetic, Hinduist and Taoist philosophers. The main concepts of Taoist medicine are described in detail in the Nei Ching Su Wen (The Yellow Emperor's Medicine Classic)... The Taoist concept of health can best be defined as a normal dynamic balance between Yin and Yang... At first the idea of Yin and Yang seems very simplistic; it is not, it describes the basic changing balance of nature: the metabolic hypercycle. (p. 267)

The last remark is developed from a different perspective by A. C. Graham (Yin-Yang and the Nature of Correlative Thinking, The Institute of East Asian Philosophies, 1986) and has been related to discussion of the credibility of "correspondences" (Theories of Correspondences and potential equivalences between them in correlative thinking, 2007).

For Jantsch: "Hypercycles...play an important role in many natural phenomena of self-organization, spanning a wide spectrum from chemical and biological evolution to ecological and economic systems and systems of population growth." (1980, p.15). Eigen, in reporting on his detailed analysis with Peter Schuster of the emergence of such new order (1979), states: "The self-replicative components significant for the integration of information reproduce themselves only in a coexistent form when they are connected to one another through cyclic coupling. The mutual stabilization of the components of hypercycles succeeds for more than four partners in the form of nonlinear oscillations..." (p.252).

Such a hypercycle can be seen as a linking process between the participating (sub)systems, themselves cyclically ordered. The formation and maintenance of such a cycle which runs irreversibly in one direction and reconstitutes its participants and thereby itself, is possible only far from equilibrium. Its rhythm is controlled by the cycle of the slowest acting participant, thereby liberating transformative energy steadily rather than explosively (p. 90).

Maximilian Schich The Hermeneutic Hypercycle, Edge, 2016):

The "hermeneutic hypercycle" is a term that returned no result in search engines before this contribution went online. A product of horizontal meme-transfer, it combines the hermeneutic circle with the concept of the catalytic hypercycle, as introduced by Eigen and Schuster. Like the carbon-cycle that keeps our sun shining and the citric acid cycle that generates energy in our cells, the hermeneutic circle in data-driven cultural analysis can be understood as a cycle of "reactions", here to nurture our understanding of art and culture.

The cycle of reactions is a catalytic hypercycle, as data collection, quantification, interpretation, and data modeling all feed back to catalyze themselves. Their cyclical connection provides a mutual corrective of bias (avoiding an error catastrophe) and leads to a vigorous growth of the field (as we learn what to learn next). In simple words, data collection leads to more data collection, quantification leads to more quantification, interpretation leads to more interpretation, and modeling leads to more modeling. Altogether, data collection nurtures quantification and interpretation, which in turn nurtures modeling, which again nurtures data collection, etc

Preliminary indication of potential relevance of a hypercycle perspective (adapted from Principia Cybernetica entry) as implied by the changes encoded by the set of 64 hexagrams representing conditions of change (from the so-called Book of Changes)
Hexagram organization of 8 "houses" of I Ching as a hypercycle (reduced version of image above)	Configuration of 64 conditions implied by "houses" on left (rings rotated to simplify graphics)	Hypercycle adaptation indicative of transformation pathways between conditions in images on left (animation)

Arguments relating to the spiral representation above are developed further in detail in Adaptive Hypercycle of Sustainable Psychosocial Self-organization: designing a mapping of a Chinese metaphorical pattern language (2010) which notably includes the following sections:

Comprehending the psychosocial hypercycle through an interplay of metaphors
Global governance communication
Towards an appropriate architecture of global conference communication
Cyclic adaptive resilience
Hypercyclic stability?

The argument is further developed with respect to the possible Five-fold cognitive dynamics of relevance to governance? (2015). This pattern is curiously consistent with the classic Chinese 5-fold Wu Xing pattern, as discussed separately (Memorable dynamics of living and dying: Hygeia and Wu Xing, 2014; Cycles of enstoning forming mnemonic pentagrams: Hygiea and Wu Xing, 2012). Ironically however, comprehension of those dynamics may be most readily enabled through dance patterns.

As noted by Wikipedia, it was subsequently indicated that in reality, a hypercycle can maintain only fewer than five members (Josef Hofbauer and Karl Sigmund, The Theory of Evolution and Dynamical Systems: mathematical aspects of selection, 1992).. In agreement with Eigen and Schuster's principal analysis, the latter argues that systems with five or more species exhibit limited and unstable cyclic behaviour, because some species can die out due to stochastic events and break the positive feedback loop that sustains the hypercycle. The extinction of the hypercycle then follows. It was also emphasized that a hypercycle size of up to four is too small to maintain the amount of information sufficient to cross the information threshold.

As presented on the right, particular transformations between conditions of change, as denoted by the hexagrams, are indicated according to that coding system. Interpretative descriptions of each are provided separately (as noted above). As a pattern indicative of a dynamic understanding of unity, it lends itself to experimental animations, as described separately (Dynamic Exploration of Value Configurations: interrelating traditional cultural symbols through animation, 2008). One variant is accessible in video format (Relating cultural symbols using dynamic I Ching configuration, YouTube).

Examples of circular configurations of I Ching hexagrams
As communicated to Leibniz (1703)	Indicating transformations between conditions
By Unknown - Perkins, Franklin. Leibniz and China: a commerce of light. Cambridge UP, 2004. 117., Public Domain, Link	As used on this website, for which it was elaborated; further details of the configuration are provided separately

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