Torque and its potential implications for psycho-social qlift-offq

Cognitive Navigation of the Elements as Indicative Strategic Metaphors (Part #9)

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A major concern in the design of helicopters, or multi-rotor systems, is compensating for the challenge of torque. The helicopter fuselage tends to rotate in the direction opposite to the rotor blades through which lift is achieved. Torque is the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of the body. Just as a linear force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist to an object around a specific axis. Compensation for torque in the single main rotor helicopter is commonly accomplished by means of a variable pitch antitorque rotor (tail rotor) located on the end of a tail boom extension at the rear of the fuselage. (Paul Cantrell, Torque, Helicopter Aviation).

A single coaxial rotor eliminates the need for a tail rotor (Trevor English, The Perfect Helicopter: understanding coaxial rotor design, Interesting Engineering, 2 February 2020). Contra-rotating rotors have been used in the design of military helicopters for the better part of the last 75 years. Unfortunately synchonisation of the timing of the rotors turning in opposite directions is vital, otherwise the aircraft becomes unstable. Additionally coaxial rotors tend not to be as responsive as a single rotorcraft.

Torque as a systemic metaphor? Following the above argument and the 12-fold presentation of Young, a systemic correspondence might be assumed between rotation around a single axis through which a psychopter achieves lift-off. Given the challenge of torque to that lift-off, it might be assumed that the necessary counter-acting or countervailing force is provided by the opposite rotation of the six properties deemed positive and the six deemed negative. The implication is then that it is the coaxial nature of the central axis that calls for recognition -- in the case of a monocoptor.

In the quest for strategic lift-off in global governance -- exemplified by the quest for sustainability, global harmony, and the like -- it is therefore curious that the extensive insights into torque and its compensation are not explored as systemic analogies for the resistance to such lift-off in psycho-social systems. It is typical of any proposal for positive change ("lift-off") that it is subject to negative commentary and opposition. Arguably the role of any opposition party in a legislative assembly is then effectively functioning as an anti-torque "tail rotor". Curiously advocates of "lift-off" see no merit in this and imagine that their advocated strategies would fly most effectively without any anti-torque facility -- contrary to the insights from helicopter operation. This assumption is also made by the opposing faction in anticipating their achievement of power. In both cases, resistance and opposition are deemed unfortunate and undesirable -- from a systemically naive perspective.

Torque psycho-social metaphors? Despite its dramatic importance to governance at all levels of society, curiously little (if any) effort is made to recognize deprecated resistance to change as torque. One curious exception is offered by discussion of Torque In Poetry (Mathematical Poetry, 9 March 2007). The blog in question promotes the use of mathematical equations to express poetic metaphor.

The challenge of recognizing what amounts to "philosophical torque" has been clearly stated by Nicholas Rescher in concluding his study of philosophical divisiveness:

For centuries, most philosophers who have reflected on the matter have been intimidated by the strife of systems. But the time has come to put this behind us -- not the strife, that is, which is ineliminable, but the felt need to somehow end it rather than simply accept it and take it in stride. To reemphasize the salient point: it would be bizarre to think that philosophy is not of value because philosophical positions are bound to reflect the particular values we hold. (The Strife of Systems: an essay on the grounds and implications of philosophical diversity, 1985).

The AQAL pattern of integral theory (presented above) is specifically associated with the spiral dynamics of lift-off. It could be argued that, as with the helicopter, these call for articulation of a countervailing anti-torque dynamic.

A separate discussion considered the potential relation between torque and the torc as variously worn, which may be spelt in the same way (Cognitive torque and fruitful associations, 2009). Of potential relevance to unconscious recognition of the value of torque is the widespread tendency to wear some form of ring following body piercing.

Torque in hegemonic systems? Especially relevant however is the study of race classification under apartheid by Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star (Sorting Things Out: classification and its consequences, 2000) as extensively reviewed by Stefan Helmreich (Torquing Things Out, Science, Technology, and Human Values, 28, 2003, 3). The insightful review focuses on one chapter of the study (The Case of Race Classification and Reclassification under Apartheid), noting that:

[the authors] hold that the contradictions constitutive of racial categorization had a particular effect on the racially subordinated: their life trajectories were wrenched out of alignment, subjected to what Bowker and Star [2000] term "torque"... I ask after some of the analytical and moral assumptions embedded in Bowker and Star's articulation of torque, and I ask what torque can and cannot tell us about the lived category of race.... Bowker and Star ...&&

• introduce the force metaphor of "torque" to describe the process that unfolds when "the 'time' of the body and of [its] multiple identities cannot be aligned with the 'time' of the classification system" (p. 190).
• argue that torsion results when the temporalities of classification and lived experience slide out of sync. Individual biographies are twisted into tortured shapes that materialize in the negative space that opens up when powerful classification schemes do not line up with the local logic of everyday life... .
• argue that the torque that results from a biography like this flows out of the conflation of Aristotelian and prototypical classifications in a circumstance of radical social inequality...
• write, "The architecture of classification schemes is simultaneously a moral and an informatic one" (p. 324), and they maintain that in many cases classification systems are tools of power used to constrain and contain people who do not fit into dominant categories of privilege

Arguably apartheid sought to install a system of white racial hegemony -- of cultural hegemony. Rather than that particular case, it is appropriate to ask whether classification into patterns more generally should evoke similar questions -- notably given the hegemonic aspirations of the dominant religions and particular superpowers.

Universal knowledge classification: The concern of relevance to the argument here can be expressed otherwise -- given the fundamental patterns of classification presented above. Is human cognition able to conceive of a universal pattern -- namely one that is both unquestionably hegemonic in nature and viable? Any such comprehensive patterns purportedly enable a form of cognitive lift-off to a metasphere -- a new frontier of perception -- as discussed separately (Future Global Exodus to the Metasphere, 2022).

Missing however is recognition of the challenge to such lift-off by cognitive torque and its manifestations in resistance. Ironically this would appear to be recognized in human efforts to articulate the organization of heaven.  Is the typically explicit provision made for the corresponding organization of hell then to be understood as an antitorque rotor? For example, gnostic cosmogony generally presents a distinction between a supreme, hidden God and a malevolent lesser divinity. Do presentations of sustainability and global governance require similar provisions -- rather than bewailing the resistance to the transformation envisaged? (Ensuring Dynamics of Sustainability by Appreciative Recognition of Evil, 2022).

The underlying concern of this argument is the identification of aids to comprehension of complexity and coherence, as previously argued (In Quest of Mnemonic Catalysts -- for comprehension of complex psychosocial dynamics, 2007). From that perspective the relation of the rotor engendering lift to its compensatory antitorque rotor is especially interesting. In the familiar helicopter the two rotors are mutually orthogonal, with the former operating horizontally and the latter operating vertically.

Monopolar and multi-polar global governance: In international relations, power may be understood as distributed within the international system in terms of polarity: unipolarity, bipolarity, and multipolarity for three or more centers of power (Karl Deutsch, et al, Multipolar Power Systems and International Stability, World Politics, 16, 1964, 3). Aspiration to full-spectrum dominance, as a characteristic of hegemony, is associated with monopolarity (Nathan A. Sears, China, Russia, and the Long 'Unipolar Moment': how balancing failures are actually extending U.S. hegemony, The Diplomat, 27 April  2016; How America wasted its unipolar moment, The Economist, 11 September 2021).

Modelled in terms of the stability of multi-rotor aircraft, unipolarity can be usefully recognized as inherently unstable -- as with monopolarity in other contexts. So framed it requires at least a second rotor. Lacking insight into torque, this unfortunately translates into engendering an "enemy"  in global governance terms -- and recognition of the need for one (Andre Chavez, The United States' Need for an Enemy: a study of the form, function, and evolution of the necessity of opposition since 1765, Grin, 2014)

Torque in 3D? Following the previous point, and from a more abstract perspective it might then be asked how such rotors might be related in a 3D framework, assuming that strategic navigation in higher dimensional space is of relevance. A visualization is suggested separately (Mandelbrot sets rendered in a mutually orthogonal configuration of 3 complex planes, 2007). Some consideration of torque in 3D is variously discussed (Calculating torque in 3D? Physics Stack Exchange; Torque in 3 dimensional coordinates, Physics Stack Exchange).

The implications are of potential relevance when the 2D mandala-style "universal" logos are considered from a 3D perspective (Eliciting Insight from Mandala-style Logos in 3D, 2020).

Torque and the helical models of innovation? In terms of this argument, innovation can be understood as a form of "lift-off". Innovation helix framework theory was first developed by Henry Etzkowitz and Loet Leydesdorff (The Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government Relations, SSRN Working Paper Series, February 2012). It is used in innovation economics and theories of knowledge, such as the knowledge society and the knowledge economy, each sector is represented by a circle (helix), with overlapping showing interactions. The triple helix model of innovation has been subsequently extended to quadruple and quintuple innovation helix frameworks. These describe university-industry-government-public-environment interactions within a knowledge economy (Yuzhuo Cai, et al Triple Helix or Quadruple Helix: Which Model of Innovation to Choose for Empirical Studies? Minerva, 60, 2022, 2)

Creativity can indeed be experienced in helical terms, as separately suggested (Charlie Sweet, et al, The Double Helix of Critical and Creative Thinking, The National Teaching and Learning Forum, 27, 2018, 6). From the perspective of the above argument, it is appropriate to ask how any form of "torque" constrains innovation framed in helical terms. Presented otherwise, the question is the nature of constraints on innovation, as variously recognized (Greg Smith, Creative Constraints: how limitations can fuel creativity, Medium, 28 May 2020; Oguz A. Acar, et al, Why Constraints Are Good for Innovation, Harvard Business Review, November 2019; Scott Barry Kaufman, Does Creativity Require Constraints? Psychology Today, 30 August 2011)

Experiential otherness as "torque"? It is appropriate to consider that in progressing according to some well-defined plan -- deemed appropriate -- any sense of "otherness", altereity or contrariness could be explored as an instance of "torque", more generally understood (Zuleyka Zevallos, What is Otherness? The Other Sociologist, 14 October 2011). This offers a way of reframing what is commonly experienced as "off-plan", "out-of-line", "out of sync", heretical, or contrary to what is framed as the "one plan". It can be understood as offering new insight into resistance (Mikael Baaz, et al, The ABC of Resistance: towards a new analytical framework, Journal of Political Power, 16, 2023, 1).

As argued by Simone de Beauvoir (The Second Sex, 1949): Otherness is a fundamental category of human thought. Thus it is that no group ever sets itself up as the One without at once setting up the Other over against itself. Understandable in that respect is the distinction between "heaven" and "hell", as provocatively suggested by the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre: Hell Is Other People (No Exit, 1944).

The more general framework can also be explored in terms of "anti-otherness", as argued separately with respect to the instances of anti-science, anti-spiritual, anti-women, anti-gay, anti-socialism, anti-animal, and anti-negativity (Anti-otherness, anti-alterity, anti-diversity and anti-consensus? 2018). There is some relevance to the argument regarding the emerging promotion of misinformation/disinformation studies as a complement to mainstream perspectives (Toby Roger, How anti-corporate agnotology studies got swamped by pro-corporate misinformation studies, 22 February 2023).

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