Conclusion

Reintegration of a Remaindered World (Part #14)

The different threads of the argument point to a possible relationship between attitudes towards society in which people have been variously remaindered. This is exemplified by the case of unemployment in which lives are most obviously "remaindered" -- as highlighted by the Occupy movement worldwide. These attitudes take concrete form in the treatment of the natural environment and the many species effectively remaindered.

Requisite strategic complexity? The future may well find strange the contrast between the global strategic fumblings on matters seemingly of great moment to human civilization compared to the sophisticated preoccupations of physicists. As implied by string theory, they now affirm that there are 10⁵⁰⁰ universes --- a multiverse in parallel with the universe conventionally held to be known to some degree (Robert Adler, Ultimate Guide to the Multiverse, New Scientist, 26 November 2011). As noted by Adler:

Even quantum mechanics implies that our universe is a single snowflake in a blizzard of parallel universes....Now we must learn to live in a universe which offers an enormous multitude of choices. Finding out why our universe is as it is. when there is such a vast number of alternatives, is one of cosmology's biggest challenges.

Most curious is the level of complexity, beyond the comprehension of the "99%" (if not the "99.999%"), now considered appropriate to the explanation of the physical context of the world -- and upheld as legitimate by society and worthy of appropriate reward.

Obsessive priorities? Whilst the speculations and experiments of physicists on these matters are generously supported and encouraged by taxpayers, if unknowingly, it is unclear why not an iota of this creative capacity is seemingly applied to the challenges of governance of a civilization in crisis. This contrasts with the conscription of willing physicists into the design of every more destructive weapons. The point is made by Margaret Wertheim (Pythagoras' Trousers: god, physics, and the gender wars, 1995):

... the physics community has become almost fanatically obsessed with a goal that I suggest offers very few benefits for society. That is the dream of finding a unified theory of the particles and forces of nature... a "theory of everything" (TOE)... Such a theory is really a quasi-religious rather than a scientific goal... Even the most ardent TOE proponents acknowledge that this theoretical synthesis is unlikely to have any application to daily human life -- not even for military purposes... The sheer expense of pursuing this goal has thus transformed it into an issue for society at large.... I suggest that contemporary physicists' obsession with a theory of everything is socially irresponsible... Since a theory of everything would be not only utterly irrelevant to dail life and concerns, but also incomprehensible to the vast majority of people, TOE physicists can be likened to the late medieval Scholastics. This is the twentieth-century equivalent of asking how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. (pp. 13-14)

It could be argued that this is indicative of the remaindering of planetary civilization on a truly "cosmic" scale. Ironically the insights of astrophysicists follow from detection of cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) -- "relic radiation" left over from an early stage in the development of the universe, specifically the Big Bang.

Precluding future insight? No comparisons are made with the currently deprecated reflections of the Scholastics of the past -- the honoured equivalent of the physicists of today. As indicated by Wertheim, no mention is made of the question by which their reflections were later dismissed: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Curiously, however, as stressed by Wertheim, those empowered to reflect on the existence of 10⁵⁰⁰ universes have "nothing" to offer to the challenges of today -- other than a speculative sense of context which the future may well deprecate in turn. In endeavouring to become "Lords of Time", physicists forget that the present is a moment of insight precluding those of the future. In this way the creative capacity of the future is discounted -- and its peoples remaindered.

Given their incapacity to reflect on any matter by which global governance is challenged, it might be considered profoundly ironic that at the time of writing physicists expect to announce the "breakthrough of the century" with respect to understanding of matter -- as a consequence of a degree of success in their quest for the so-called God particle.

Requisite alternatives for governance? Conventional reflection regarding alternatives to the governance of society -- typically formulated by the remaindered -- is stretched by the possibility of a single alternative, let alone the possibility of the 10⁵⁰⁰ seriously suggested by physics. The variety of those universes is offered as an invitation to the imagination (John D. Barrow, The Book of Universes: exploring the limits of the cosmos, 2011). Any possible psychosocial alternatives are deprecated and mocked.

Is there something inherently inadequate in the creative capacities of physicists, or is it the case that the psychosocial challenges of global governance are somewhat more complex than those required for comprehension of the the physical universe?

Comprehension constraints? More curious still, as noted by Adler, is acceptance by physics of "anthropomorphic reasoning to constrain the amount of dark energy, the ratio of dark energy to ordinary matter, and the mass of elementary particles such as neutrinos and quarks." According to the belief system of physics, this reasoning enables the particularities of "our" universe to be winnowed out of the multiverse.

However dubious according to convention, does this offer a justification for using human capacities and constraints in "chunking" information to explore the capacity and preferences for ordering the issues of global governance? Are such constraints consistent with those to which Deacon refers (as discussed above)? Should these be invoked in more fruitful approaches to the only too evident divisive polarization of policy discourse? With what degree of complexity might this now be done -- given the comparison with the 11 (or more) dimensions of string theory and the 10⁵⁰⁰ universes it infers?

Physicists rejoice in the subtleties with which they struggle and the manner in which the majority are effectively remaindered by their constrained comprehension capacity. The pattern is evident in major discoveries of mathematics with regard to the most elegant symmetry, upheld as fundamental to the structure of the universe -- as with the so-called Monster symmetry group of some 8 x 10 ⁵³ elements. How is the profound significance of such fundamental order to be derived from psychosocial organization and how is recognition given to the constraints on comprehension (Potential Psychosocial Significance of Monstrous Moonshine: an exceptional form of symmetry as a Rosetta stone for cognitive frameworks, 2007; Dynamics of Symmetry Group Theorizing: comprehension of psycho-social implication, 2009)?

For those remaindered by the subprime mortgage crisis, there is a profound irony to the fact that one of the few applications of the complexity sciences to human affairs -- namely in the stock market -- had resulted in the disastrously widespread use of the Gaussian copula in risk management. As noted by its discoverer, few using it understood it (Uncritical Strategic Dependence on Little-known Metrics: the Gaussian Copula, the Kaya Identity, and what else? 2009).

CMB discovery moment? The current preoccupations of the Occupy movement and the "indignant" are considered surprising by the so-called "Masters of the Universe" at the core of the "1%". Their lack of recognition of the universal background of resentment amongst the "99%" may perhaps be usefully compared to that of astrophysicists prior to 1964 -- when the cosmic microwave background radiation was fortuitously detected.

The "1%" might now be said to be having their "CMB discovery moment". The "microwave" is now detectable. Of course, following 1964, astrophysicists successfully argued internationally for the construction of a multiplicity of massive radio telescopes capable of detecting that "relic radiation" to be able to "see" and understand the condition of the universe at the time of its alleged origins some 15 billion years ago. Little is said about the "radio telescopes" necessary to detect the psychosocial analogue -- although one may suspect that security services worldwide understand the urgency of doing so. Their objective will be to suppress the CMB in question -- as with the tale of King Canute and the rising tide, or the banning of zero by Florentine authorities in the 13th century.

Trashing the planet? The Occupy movement and its sympathizers are deeply concerned at the remaindered world in which they are obliged to live as a consequence of the systemic neglect of the "1%" and those complicit with their interests. The systematic trashing of the planet into a wasteland -- a scrap heap -- is perhaps even more evident in the intangible psychosocial realm than in its tangible forms. It is a matter of personal experience for many, especially evident in rising levels of despair and lifestyle diseases (Implication of Personal Despair in Planetary Despair, 2010; Cognitive Implications of Lifestyle Diseases, 2010). These manifestations are of course shared in part by the "1%" despite their access to every possible remedial resource.

There is a a real sense, especially for the young, that they are wasting their lives away in this wasteland. Their lives might well be said to have been deliberately "pre-remaindered". Benefitting from the creativity and legitimacy of physics, should each recognize the right to his or her own "universe" -- one of the 10⁵⁰⁰ ?

Necessary civilizational collapse? Is there a larger tragic sense in which the world needs to be "remaindered" -- transformed disastrously into a civilizational wasteland through a process of collective "stripping"? A dark night of the collective soul? From such a larger perspective of the grand sweep of human history, is it through this "learning" process -- however it plays out in civilizational collapse and end times scenarios -- that the vital role of the underlying "remainder" (as variously identified in Annex 1) will be collectively and consciously recognized?

Given the news at the time of writing regarding global economic recession, will the remaindered be able to rejoice at the possibility of receiving a "particle" of God for Christmas 2011 -- or might that be a "wave" from God? Or might that be for the end of 2012 -- as some physicists precautiously suggest? There is naturally some uncertainty regarding the matter.

Eliciting harmony? The Occupy movement has been widely deprecated for its failure to articulate the concerns of the "99%" in the conventional terms which the "1%" are so skilled at manipulating to their own advantage -- to enable the continuing depredation of the planet. Critics highlight the dissension amongst sympathizers of that movement -- as with the World Social Forum and other social change movements. Such critics fail to recall the role of music and song in offering new forms of cohesion to the student protests of 1968. They fail to notice how a degree of unusual harmony is offered to such varied expression -- a harmony capable of allowing for the expression of multiple "voices" and a variety of "instruments", in contrast to the desperately simplistic conventional efforts to ensure that everyone "sings from the same hymn sheet", as discussed separately (Enabling a 12-fold Pattern of Systemic Dialogue for Governance, 2011).

Will this be a mode of response to the complex of issues highlighted by such as Jared M. Diamond (Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, 2005, John Ralston Saul (The Unconscious Civilization, 1995), Charles Handy (The Age of Unreason: new thinking for a new world, 1989), Thomas Homer-Dixon (The Upside of Down: catastrophe, creativity, and the renewal of civilization, 2006).

Indication of the "next zero"?
Thirty modalities frame the core of global governance.
It is the empty centre that ensures it is sustainable...
Therefore development emerges from what is there;
Sustainability from what is not.

(Adaptation of Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching)

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Conclusion