Embodying topological succinctness beyond questions

Embodying a Hypercomplex of Unhygienic Nescience (Part #13)

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With respect to argumentation and communication, the considerations above give focus to the quality of succinctness which is both readily communicable and memorable. This is clearly a concern in marketing and in the promotion of any cause. How well does a message travel? How long does it persist in communication space? How can its interestingness be distinguished and enhanced? This can be explored with respect to the investment of attention and how it may be elicited (Investing Attention Essential to Viable Growth, 2014). The latter discussion was framed in terms of the radical self-reflexive reappropriation of financial skills and insights.

Opting for self-immolation and suicide bombing could be seen as one tragic interpretation of the need for widely memorable succinct expression. It merits very careful exploration in that light, as with cognitive processes leading to more conventional forms of suicide (Metaphors To Die By: correspondences between a collapsing civilization and a dying person, 2013). More generally, succinctness could be understood as associated with gesture -- the more dramatic, the more effective. Hence its appreciation in politics and social other processes.

Twitter has made evident another response offering a degree of viability. However the very high quantity of tweets renders the modality questionable, over the longer term (if it remains of any consideration), irrespective of how viral may be the dissemination and uptake -- as with other such social media.

Erosion of collective memory: The unmemorability of message relevance is of concern -- namely the rate of (collective) memory erosion, or the capacity for memory retention. This might be explored as a cognitive form of so-called link rot -- appropriately also known as "link death". This could be usefully reviewed in the light of measures of the half-life of radioactive isotopes, of which the following are examples (linking to Wikipedia List of isotopes by half-life):

Measures indicative of rate of memory decay ("cognitive link rot")
Order of half-life	Specific examples
	Isotopes	Half-life (approx)
100 seconds	carbon-15	2.5 secs
103 seconds	sodium-24	16 hours
106 seconds	chromium-51	28 days
109 seconds	uranium-232	69 years
1012 seconds	lead-202	52,000 years

Such a framing is of relevance both to collective memory and to the individual tendency to forget (Societal Learning and the Erosion of Collective Memory, 1980). With respect to the individual, this becomes ever more relevant with aging of the population -- and especially of strategic decision-makers. With the increasing incidence of Alzheimer's syndrome and Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it may become of deep personal concern -- possibly a major challenge through progressive erosion of any sense of personal identity.

The seeming obscurity of this argument may well invite only the most limited forms of conventional attention. Ironically however, its relevance to the sustainability of personal identity and the sustainability of cognitive health is reminiscent of the "health" justifications so frequently advanced with respect to the need for investment in aerospace and similar technologies. The traditional preoccupation of alchemy with "immortality" may then be compared with current preoccupation with "sustainability" and personal life extension. In this case, however, the concern could be said to be with "attention sustaining technology".

Interestingness: The media endeavour to address the challenge through human interest stories enhanced by dramatic photos. Eliciting poignancy is a factor transcending the verbose and extensive photo coverage. Related techniques may be deliberately used to manipulate opinion. Abraham Lincoln's caution remains however:

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Given the framing offered by the phase diagram above, what might be the characteristics of a communication which could "work" -- transformatively and globally? Is it in fact necessary that the message -- the point to be communicated -- should indeed be embodied in some way, even enacted? Is use of "point", as a geometrical metaphor, itself fundamentally misleading (Metaphorical Geometry in Quest of Globality -- in response to global governance challenges, 2009)? How should it be contrasted with the scoring of points or goals, which are a focus of so much interest in games of every kind?

Topological paradox: With respect to succinctness, more general consideration can be given to topology ( rather than geometry), as it figures most notably in the work of Steven Rosen (Topologies of the Flesh, 2006; Dimensions of Apeiron: a topological phenomenology of space, time, and individuation, 2004). He discusses at some length the above-mentioned Enigma of Bologna, together with the alchemical interpretation given to it by Carl Jung (Dreams, Death, Rebirth: a multimedia topological odyssey into alchemy's hidden dimensions, 2014).

This is a tomb that has no body in it. This is a body that has no tomb round it. But body and tomb are the same.

Interpretation of concluding stanza from Latin, in commentary by Carl Jung (Mysterium Coniunctionis: an inquiry into the separation and synthesis of psychic opposites in alchemy, 1963, p.81)

Appropriate to the language challenge addressed by alchemy, Jung claims both that the original Latin inscription constituted an ideal alchemical text (to which he devoted considerable attention) and that the simultaneous assertion of everything and nothing was "nonsense". He added that it became a "flypaper for every conceivable projection that buzzed in the human mind" (Jung, Collected Works, 14, p. 68), as discussed by Michael Mitchell (Hidden Mutualities: Faustian Themes from Gnostic Origins to the Postcolonial, 2006, pp. 89-90). His consideration of it resulted in the above "interpretation" of the Latin original. It could be said that he transformed the text in ways consistent with the alchemical methodology -- rendering the enigma either more enigmatic or more significant.

Of interest with respect to the above argument, the Latin original is characterized by multiple application to various (binary) categories of "nec" (meaning "neither", "not" or "nor"), concluding with "sed omnia" (meaning "but everything"). Ironically one interpretation of the inscription might then take the more succinct multilingual form of: Neti Neti. Sed Omnia. This is of additional relevance in a period when the quest by science for a Theory of Everything is itself subject to challenge (Russell Standish, Theory of Nothing, 2006).

Encompassing everything cognitively: It is however the topological representation of the encompassing framework that Rosen calls into question by reference to the paradoxical cognitive distinction between insideness and outsideness, as illustrated by the Klein bottle. In his terms:

These words from the Enigma of Bologna darkly intimate the underlying design of the subtle body. We have now reached the point where allusively pictorial images... [previously presented]... will no longer suffice. Presently, we must attempt to bring the inside-out structure of our infinite body into sharper focus, distill it with greater precision (2014, chapter 3).

The concern is the emptiness of the tomb with which the body may be variously identified. In alchemical language the challenge is the nature of the container for alkahest -- the universal solvent. Understood cognitively, it is this mysterious fluid which is capable of dissolving any solid distinction framed by the conventionally "frozen" categories characteristic of language.

Embodying the world: The point may be made otherwise by reference to Leonardo da Vinci's famed Vitruvian Man (image below) -- framed by "architectural" proportions and originating from the same period as the Enigma. As encompassed architecturally in the image, the human being can also be understood as "entombed".

It is in this sense that the ring encircling the Vitruvian Man can be explored with respect to separate arguments regarding the "The-O ring" (The-O Ring and The Bull Ring as Spectacular Archetypes: dramatic correlation of theatre, theory, theorem, theology, and theosophy, 2014). As stated there, the argument could be caricatured by an adaptation of the title of a famed study of psychotherapy: We've Had a 1000 Years of Theo -- And the World's Getting Worse.

The Vitruvian Man is widely used to illustrate the principle of man as the measure of all things. It is indicative of how "everything" is reflected, or mirrored, in man -- especially in terms of comprehension -- most notably in the light of arguments made by George Lakoff and colleagues (Philosophy In The Flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to western thought, 1999; Where Mathematics Comes From: how the embodied mind brings mathematics into being, 2001). This is suggestive of how humans might "embody" the world -- even creatively Envisioning and Embodying a New World, (as was the theme of the 2014 gathering of the Scientific and Medical Network).

Challenging embodiment: The extent to which Vitruvian Man has exemplified the problematic insensitivity highlighted by feminist scholars has been fruitfully discussed by Thomas Spitzer-Hanks (As Through a Glass, Darkly: abjection and masculinity in narrative, 2010):

In his guise as universal ideal Vitruvian Man explains the cosmos, the divine, and the orderly relations between the two as a function of specificity disingenuously subsumed in supposedly objective, representative humanity. He is the perfect thinker whose body does not matter... the expression of ideal genetic potential towards which humans should strive. In his relation to mathematics and science he is the embodied virtue of objectivity, the 'logic of the One' clothed in flesh and thus the ideal scientist, philosopher,and statesman.

Spitzer-Hanks then articulates the challenge to this interpretation:

However, there is another way of reading Vitruvian Man. He can be read as symbolic of the male as the pinnacle of the human, the white as the pinnacle of the ethnic, and the phallus as the safe, symbolic stand-in for the messy, intractable penis. In fact Vitruvian Man is an incarnation of the ancient Greek ideal of the kalagathon (Margaret Morse,1983).

He continues:

Vitruvian Man is thus shown to be an index of the normative power of white masculinity, linked to scientific knowledge, social control and political-imperial application of that power. In his guise as ideal he leads the way towards patriarchal assumptions about gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and social order that privilege the human only in as much as it resembles the kalagathonic ideal, and offers the seductive vision of perfect sight, perfect knowledge, and absolute Truth.

This plays out in the contrast between the worlwide attention invested in the FIFA World Football Cup for men and that for women -- of which few are aware -- in a period of bloody regional conflicts. As a preliminary exercise, "Vitruvian Man" can be embedded in an animation (below) with "Vitruvian Woman" -- in which the skin colour of both is changing. Skin colours could have ranged through those of the von Luschan scale or those of the Fitzpatrick scale. However the point is perhaps better made by the addition of unusual skin colours for both.

Human mirroring: The challenge of succinctness remains -- especially worldwide comprehension of the world in all its complexity, under the conditions of information overload noted above. It is in this respect that Vitruvian "Man" is only partially indicative of a human being as constituting what is effectively a cognitive mapping surface -- understood through topological forms of requisite complexity. However, with its associations to vitrification, mirrors and glass ceilings, there is a need to shatter the mirror, or to step through it in some "magical" way (Stepping into, or through, the Mirror: embodying alternative scenario patterns, 2008). The static ideal image clearly fails to take account of "black", "female", and multiple variants, which together contribute to the challenging dynamics with which people are faced.

Subtle correspondences?
8 Principles of Yong	Vitruvian Animation -- man/woman (multi-coloured variant)	Wu-Xing cycle

Of some potential relevance wih respect to the paradoxical relationship between "everything" and "nothing" is the famed Euler identity, rated the greatest mathematical equiation ever. Of it Benjamin Peirce remarked: It is absolutely paradoxical; we cannot understand it, and we don't know what it means, but we have proved it, and therefore we know it must be the truth.

Memetic compression: homunculus and simulation: Missing from the argument from principle regarding "measure of all things" is a sense of how cognitive complexity is embodied, namely how it is "memetically compressed" -- rendered integratively succinct. It is in this sense that the controversial alchemical process of creating a cognitive homunculus merits consideration as a mapping surface -- namely of how to embody reality as a readily comprehensible mapping template or embodied simulation.

Whilst "homunculus" may be readily dismissed as exemplifying the need to deprecate alchemy, understanding its creation as a form of computer simulation in the most modern sense calls for careful consideration of its cognitive implications. How does an individual engender and sustain a personal image -- effectively an internal model? More challenging, if only in a speculative sense, is the continuing debate on whether humans live in a simulated reality -- a theme explored as simulated reality in fiction, even pre-dating science fiction.

As with any mnemonic aid, the question is how to associate the diversity of reality with a surface which has integrative characteristics (Frances Yates, The Art of Memory, 1966). With regard to memetic compression, it is of course genetic organization which offers valuable clues (DNA Supercoiling as a Pattern for Understanding Psycho-social Twistedness, 2004; Climbing Elven Stairways: DNA as a macroscopic metaphor of polarized psychodynamics, 2007).

With respect to worldwide comprehension in a global knowledge-based society, succinctness is curiously undermined to the highest degree by intellectual property right. This can be understood as a form of closure and entombment of knowledge -- and, as such, an "enigma" in its own right. Ironically this applies in particular to many texts and images of relevance to this argument. These could be caricatured as disseminated under a questionable model of the past, as exemplified by the Encyclopaedia Britannica -- much challenged by the open source model of Wikipedia.

Imaginal transformation of energy resourcing (ITER-8): The following series of thumbnail images offers insights into the containing vessel for a dialogue/argumentation process to be variously understood -- from mutually challenging complementary perspectives. The images are the subject of more detailed discussion above, or as cited.

The set of thumbnail images immediately below offers insights into the containing vessel itself -- for a process to be variously understood. That on the right is of the design of the ITER toroidal nuclear fusion reactor, currently under construction. The argument here is that, as a product of the human mind for energy creation and management, it may well offer insights into the design and operation of a sufficiently complex container for the psycho-social processes characteristic of global dialogue, as separately discussed (Enactivating a Cognitive Fusion Reactor: Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing (ITER-8), 2006).

The argument for seeking inspiration from technological designs can be discussed in relation to technomimicry (Engendering a Psychopter through Biomimicry and Technomimicry: insights from the process of helicopter development, 2011; Technomimicry as key to a new mode of knowing? 2014). The ITER reactor design is of fundamental significance in that it requires that the circulating plasma not come in contact with the walls of the container -- with what this suggests in the light of the arguments above regarding the inadequacy of conventional use of containing categories and words. As reframed, ITER-8 may therefore be considered an alchemical vessel appropriately prefigured by ITER. The "plasma" in question is then intimately associated with some form of attention.

Rather than the simple torus design of ITER, that required as a cognitive vessel (ITER-8), needs to be considered in terms of the complexification of the torus in the form of a Klein bottle (central image), as indicated above and extensively discussed by Steven Rosen. From a more abstract perspective, the container can be considered as a cup (image on left) into which it is possible to look in a particular way, as discussed above. Engagement with the cup can be considered as an extension of its use in religion, drink, awards, ceremonial, and divination. It is appropriate to note that literature regarding containment of plasma by ITER refers specifically to its snake-like behaviour within the torus (a metaphor employed as the snake in the tunnel with regard to European monetary cooperation). The metaphor is of course very appropriate to the tricky, slippery wriggling of politicians and the process of dboutlespeak more generally.

Alternative indications of container for the same cognitive process
Self-reflexivity implied by Bowl of Hygeia, symbolic of healing	Paradoxical container of inside/outside implied by Klein bottle	Design of ITER toroidal plasma container vessel (nuclear fusion reactor)
Image from Wikipedia	Image from Wikipedia
		Images from ITER (click for larger original)

The images immediately below offer various insights into the process within the containing vessel above. That on the right, is the alchemical symbol (xuanpin) for the valley spirit, or mysterious feminine (discussed above). This "spirit" may be fruitfully considered as corresponding to the plasma (an unusual state of matter) -- a mysterious "feminine" fluid -- circulating in the "valley" formed by the ITER nuclear fusion reactor (in the image immediately above it). It could however be considered as a form of systems diagram of the cognitive processes of ITER-8 and the challenge of cognitive fusion and its comprehension.

The changing phases of the adaptive cycle in the course of the circulation of that "fluid" are usefully represented by the adaptive cycle in the central image below, understood as being in the form of a Möbius strip, with the paradoxes that implies (as discussed above). The circulating fluid in cognitive terms can be further explored in terms of the Neidan meditative tradition of circulation of light (Circulation of the Light Essential metaphor of global sustainability? 2010). Given the self-reflexivity implied by the "snake", the image on the left below can be explored as a view of the complex dynamics within the bowl (as discussed earlier) -- exploiting the sense that to "understand" (as conventionally used) is represented by the stand of the bowl beneath the stem.

Alternative indications of cognitive processes within the above container
View of dynamics within the bowl above down to the "under-stand"	Representation in Möbius form of phase transitions within the adaptive cycle	Alchemical representation of the mysterious (plasma) fluid moving within the toroidal vessel above

The animations immediately below offer alternative encodings of the detailed complementary phases in the cognitive processes above. That on the left is the highly formalized encoding of the 64 conditions of change, detailed separately (Transformation Metaphors derived experimentally from the Chinese Book of Changes (I Ching) -- for sustainable dialogue, vision, conferencing, policy, network, community and lifestyle, 1997). The corresponding characters (on the right) are indicative of the considerations in their formation according to the calligraphic 8 Principles of Yong (associated above with Neidan). The characters could be understood as conditions into which the "snake" may be entwined. The central animation is indicative of transformations between the hexagrams and their potential relationship to genetic/memetic codon encoding.

Juxtaposition of related animations based on the 64 hexagrams of the Book of Changes (I Ching)
Hexagram coding	Codon transitions	Chinese character
Reproduced from Psychosocial Implication in Gamma Animation: epimemetics for a Brave New World (2013)

As with the static configuration of I Ching hexagrams (in the logo of this site, as explained elsewhere Challenges to Comprehension Implied by the Logo, 2007), the purpose here is to explore technical possibilities of representation that may elicit new insight -- engendered by greater cognitive resonance with such representations. It should be noted that the rotation of the arrangements presented below does not correspond to traditional representations. (Animation of Classical BaGua Arrangements a dynamic representation of Neti Neti, 2008). The 8-fold pattern offers a reason for the reframing of ITER-8.

Animation of Bagua "earlier heaven" arrangement (rotating anti-clockwise)	Suggestive superimposition of Wu-Xing cycle on the phase diagram	Animation of Bagua "later heaven" arrangement (rotating clockwise)

The four sets of three complementary images together suggest the possibility of a 12-fold juxtaposition of the set of constraints on the attention-plasma "snake". One indicative animation is presented separately (Animation suggestive of the experiential system of interwoven creative processes, 2014).

Extraterrestrial perception?: The issue can be speculatively framed otherwise in terms of any expectation by extraterrestrials, especially in the light of the apparent failure of ETs to communicate with humanity. Would ETs consider significant communication to be framed otherwise than through questions or answers? Are there questions of a higher order to be recognized as a requisite of such communication -- perhaps to be provocatively framed as suggested by crop circles, but of a cognitive nature?

Is there a modality distinct from question/answer which would be fundamental to interestingness in their terms -- and the avoidance of boredom? Does potential communication with humanity currently constitute a problem of deja vu for ETs, especially given currently imagined scenarios of such dialogues as elaborated by Vitruvian "Man"? (Sensing Epiterrestrial Intelligence (SETI): embedding of "extraterrestrials" in episystemic dynamics? 2013).

Rather than ET's, the issue can be explored with respect to the threats to humanity expected from advances in artificial intelligence, as discussed by Nick Bostrom (Get ready for the dawn of superintelligence, New Scientist, 5 July 2014). In this case also, however, superintelligence may require that communications be "formatted" succinctly and otherwise to elicit a meaningful response (Superquestions for Supercomputers, 2010).

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