Being "flat" -- or "global" and "well-rounded"?

Imagining Toroidal Life as a Sustainable Alternative (Part #5)

[Parts: First | Prev | Next | Last | All] [Visuals] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]

Universal perspective: As noted above, a Flat Earth perspective is variously deprecated as the epitome of misunderstanding, although a variety of arguments can be presented in support of Flat Earth theory. Wikipedia notes, for example, that despite the scientific fact of Earth's sphericity, pseudoscientific flat Earth conspiracy theories are espoused by modern flat Earth societies and, increasingly, by unaffiliated individuals using social media. Unusually, Wikipedia includes al page on Why Wikipedia cannot claim the Earth is not flat.

On the other hand, Scientific American includes an argument by Davide Castelvecchi (What Do You Mean, The Universe Is Flat?, Part I, 25 July 2011; Part II, 31 July 2011). This frames the conceptual dilemma through the following seemingly inconsistent statements which are associated with scientific theories:

The author argues that the subtlety lies in the word "universe" having different meanings in different contexts and implicitly assumes that we are referring to "everything that exists now". Also pointed out is that in the past decade there have been numerous references to the fact that cosmologists have found what they say is rather convincing evidence that the universe (meaning 3-D space) is flat, or at least very close to being flat. The author then proceeds to explain that flatness and curviness make sense in any number of dimensions.

Castelvecchi offers the clarification that when cosmologists say that the universe is flat they are referring to space -- the nowverse and its parallel siblings of time past. Spacetime is not flat. It can't be: Einstein's general theory of relativity says that matter and energy curve spacetime, and there are enough matter and energy lying around to provide for curvature. Besides, if spacetime were flat I wouldn't be sitting here because there would be no gravity to keep me on the chair. To put it succinctly: space can be flat even if spacetime isn't. Moreover, when they talk about the flatness of space cosmologists are referring to the large-scale appearance of the universe.

Personal implications: Of relevance to the argument here is the sense that this degree of confusion, and the opportunity for what can be understood as misunderstanding, is echoed to a surprising degree in personal comprehension of any distinction between the flat and the curved -- most notably as it applies to personal identity. There is therefore a sense in which people can experience themselves as "flat" -- rather than somehow well-rounded, if not "global". A form of Flat Earth thinking can then be recognized as a common experience when applied to individuals, and especially to oneself. The argument is reinforced by that of Nick Chater (The Mind is Flat: the illusion of mental depth and the improvised mind, 2018).

This appreciation of (and by) individuals is curiously echoed and reinforced by administrative procedures whereby the identity of citizens is defined and determined. This is evident in the use of "ID", especially "photo ID" and identity cards -- all flat, and typically stored flat, recalling the collections of specimens in museum drawers. This reinforcement extends to electronic representation on a screen -- typically flat (Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, 1995)

As with the difficulty of recognizing and proving that the Earth is round, individuals could be understood to be as much challenged with how to prove and demonstrate that they are "round" -- or other than "flat". The challenge has experiential dimensions to the extent that an individual may feel "flat" -- not "well-rounded", as possibly implied by being "a person for all seasons". What enables someone to think they are round? To whom are they experienced as round and when? There are many references to well-roundedness and related notions (What is a well-rounded person, Quora, 2016; What Activities and Character Traits Make a Well-Rounded Person? Reference; Baldassare Castiglione, The Ideal of the Well-Rounded Man; Glen Stansberry, How to Become a Modern Day Renaissance Man (or Woman), Gentlemint, 2017; Randy Lee, Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons and the Art of Discerning Integrity, 2000) .

The distinction in personal terms is only too evident in the preoccupation with physical roundedness -- with the extremes of the many references to being "flat-chested" or obese. Here however the concern with "feeling flat" -- or the sense that one is being "socially flattened", "economically flattened", "politically flattened", or "psychologically flattened" -- especially to the extent that this may be a consequence of violence, whether structural, cultural, intellectual, or spiritual (Alice Boyes, 13 Potential Causes for "Feeling Flat", Psychology Today, 13 September 2018; Jessica Davis, Mid-point mental health: why are we all feeling so flat? Harpers Bazaar, 14 May 2019).

Collective implications: Are there agendas whereby people are being deliberately "flattened" -- perhaps as one feature of dumbing down? (Jimmy Daly, Is Higher Education at Risk of Being Flattened? EdTech, July 2012). Clearly references to people being "crushed" through repressive policies are associated with approximations to being flattened. Of particular relevance are the issues for women in different cultures where their possibility of well-rounded lives is less obvious than the inference that they are effectively flattened by patterns of male dominance.

How do people recover from those experiences? An obvious clue is offered by recourse to psychoactive substances, alcohol, and the like. Sexual intercourse and procreation are another possibility. These could be said to offer an illusion of roundedness -- as with engagement in various forms of movement, including travel, dance, and sport (Mark Johnson, The Body in the Mind: the bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason, 1987; Maxine Sheets-Johnstone, The Primacy of Movement, 1999). A relevant argument has been made from a socio-economic perspective by Thomas Friedman (It's a Flat World, After All, The New York Times, 3 April 2005; The World Is Flat, 2005). The latter was given the first Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2005. The perspective of "falling flat" is of concern to business (J. P. Eggers, Falling Flat: failed technologies and investment under uncertainty, Administrative Science Quarterly, 30 April 2012).

Unexamined implications for identity: Part of the challenge lies in the experience of oneself and others over time. Where, and in what form, is the identity through which one lived yesterday -- as now recalled? Is the present sense of one's past identity recognized as more than flat -- as now recalled through photos? How does one "re-member" oneself and others -- and how is one "re-membered" by them? Is there a particular process through which roundedness and coherence is projected into documents from the past -- evoking a sense of roundedness or a memory of it, however faint and elusive?

This recalls the process of inflating a flat balloon -- with the challenge of how long it stays inflated and is susceptible to bursting. How indeed to "puff-up" wholeness from any sense of being flat -- recalling the genetic challenges of Jurassic Park? What of the desire to be "more rounded" in the future -- and sustainably so -- to embody fulfillment and coherence to a higher degree in some way?

Other relevant metaphors are offered by wire frames used to create soap bubbles (Megan Arnett, Build the Best Big-Bubble Wand, Scientific American, 6 April 2017). If a circular frame is a valued symbol of wholeness -- the sense of its flatness is reinforced when the frame is covered with a soapy film. Movement of the frame can result in the creation of bubbles -- typically well-rounded and a delight to see. Their evanescent nature is suggestive of the temporary nature of any sense of roundedness. Is a rounded sense of identity then to be understood as only momentary -- comparable with that of a will-o'-the-whisp? How do bubbles of identity get "pricked" and "collapse" (Pricking the Bubble of Global Complacent Complicity: hyperdimensional insights from the physics of bubble blowing, bursting and collapse, 2017)?

Yet another metaphor is offered by the Hindu system of chakras of the human body as a pattern of energy centres. These have been compared with the planets of the solar system. With each potentially understood and represented "globally", how does one identify with, or detach from, their respective perspectives -- recognized as challenge for mediation and other spiritual exercises? What of the situation in which they experienced as conceptually "flat"?

Far more problematic, especially for those experiencing it, is the sense of being "flat broke" -- in contrast to the sense of fulfillment associated with sufficiency and wealth. This is compounded by he response of others who may then conclude that one no longer "exists" -- other than as a "nobody". This is also true to a degree with collectives, even nations states.

Dubious conceptual juggling? Experiencing the globality of Earth could be usefully recognized as an exercise in conceptual "jiggery-pokery" -- especially when the emphasis is on experience rather than conceptualization. It would appear to be primarily a complex process of inference from various indications as to the limitations of flatness -- which few would be able to replicate. That said, it is far from clear how spherical and global emerge from such reflections -- except, for most, as an act of belief in the explanations of science. Arguably much the same can be said of any personal experience of wholeness and roundness -- on which so many processes of human development and individuation are focused. As with the experience of planetary globality, who can meaningfully describe and communicate individual globality in a coherent manner?

As discussed by Davide Castelvecchi, a key issue is the meaning to be associated with "exist" and "existence". How does a person exist in a flattened condition? This is a matter explored from fictional mathematical perspectives (Edwin Abbott Abbott, Flatland: a romance of many dimensions, 1884; Ian Stewart, Flatterland, 2001; Dionys Burger, Sphereland: a fantasy about curved spaces and an expanding universe, 1965; A. K. Dewdney, The Planiverse, 1984).

Given the challenge framed by "getting into orbit" around the globe, how does a person achieve the psychological equivalent? Discussion of existence is notably reframed by the suggestion from physics that reality calls for explanation in terms of quantum mechanics, with implications for international relations as ably argued by Alexander Wendt (Quantum Mind and Social Science: unifying physical and social ontology, 2015).

Such a perspective frames globality in a totally radical manner, as explored separately (Encountering Otherness as a Waveform -- in the light of a wave theory of being, 2013;  Being a Waveform of Potential as an Experiential Choice: emergent dynamic qualities of identity and integrity, 2013). From a "toroidal perspective", it might then be provocatively asked whether a "global life" worth living?

[Parts: First | Prev | Next | Last | All] [Visuals] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]