From polyocular Rosetta "stone" to complex polysensorial dynamic

In Quest of a Dynamic Pattern of Transformations (Part #8)

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Polyocular vs. Polysensorial cognition: For Maruyama the global challenge is epitomized by the restrictive tendencies associated with the cognitive processes of any particular epistemological style. Using stereoscopic vision as a metaphor, he has promoted the need to develop "polyocular vision" (Polyocular Vision or Subunderstanding? Organization Studies, 2004). Separately it has however been argued that the "vision" metaphor is itself an inadequate indication and that the requirement, as for survival in nature, is for a "polysensorial" modality -- effectively interweaving the cognitive processes of different types (Strategic Challenge of Polysensorial Knowledge: bringing the "elephant" into "focus", 2008; Beyond strategic "vision" to polysensorial strategic metaphors, 2009).

In this light it could be argued that (ironically) "global" governance has entrapped itself unfruitfully in "one-eyed" vision -- as cultivated by a singular worldview dominating the international community and its academic apologists (cf. Cyclopean Vision vs Poly-sensual Engagement, 2006).

Of relevance to this argument are the skills in which the emphasis in learning is on "getting a feel" for a process to be controlled, as in piloting a helicopter, for example. Like Alexander's "quality without a name", this intangible "feel", integrating information from multiple sources, cannot be described but its vital importance is stressed in some instances. It is recognized to a degree in some non-pathological uses of the term "cognitive fusion" (cf. Enactivating a Cognitive Fusion Reactor, 2006).

Triadic cognition: The "polyocular" vision metaphor may however be exploited further given the emphasis above on three factors by which modulation may be distinctly effected. A familiar illustration is provided by the standard RGB colour model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colours

Alternative representations of the RGB colour triangle

Atkin uses this model to clarify his mathematical representation of the challenges of comprehending a whole -- exemplified by white at the centre, namely the balanced combination of the three primary colours (cf. Comprehension: Social organization determined by incommunicability of insights, 1995). Others have explored triangulation and triadic articulation in ways of relevance to this argument, as summarized separately (Triangulation of Incommensurable Concepts for Global Configuration, 2011).

Eightfold cognition: The recognition of four or more "types", suggests the need for embodying a larger variety of cognitive processes -- a requisite variety in cybernetic terms -- to enable a viable "living system". Hence the value of exploring 8-fold systems as variously cited, most notably the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism, the Eightfold Way of particle-physics theory, the Eight-circuit Model of consciousness, and the Eightfold Path of policy analysis.

The first in particular could be interpreted as indicating a complex balance between contrasting cognitive modalities -- again with the emphasis on the associated cognitive processes rather than on the pathway, too readily understood in conventional static terms. Buddhism corrects the latter tendency by emphasis on "laying down a path in walking", a central theme of the work on cognitive enactivism of Francisco Varela (Laying Down a Path in Walking: essays on enactive cognition, 1997), discussed separately (En-minding the Extended Body: enactive engagement in conceptual shapeshifting and deep ecology, 2003).

Combining the core insights of the Tao Te Ching and of Alfred Korzybski, it might then be suggested that: The Way that can be indicated is not the Way. Indicating a path to be followed to a dog, by pointing, illustrates the dilemma -- given the attentively enthusiastic focus of the dog on the pointing finger itself and not on the direction to which it points (with implications for a vertically pointing finger as the characteristic gesture accompanying religious injunction ! ).

Yolles and Fink (2012) also address the question of an 8-fold balance in relation to potential collective pathologies. There is then some irony to an 8-fold system in the light of the argument of Stephen Prothero (God Is Not One: the eight rival religions that run the world -- and why their differences matter, 2010). It would then follow that any argument for man having been created "in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27) suggests that "Man is Not One" -- at least cognitively, until a way is found to integrate the eight distinct cognitive processes appropriately, with full recognition as to "why their differences matter". In the absence of any 8-fold "polyocular vision", man is otherwise condemned to "subunderstanding" -- in Maruyama's terms.

Given the need for an 8-fold approach (at least), there is then an immense irony to the fact that the global knowledge-based civilization (increasingly preoccupied by "spin") should be so firmly founded on the metaphor of a world wide web. From it information is systematically collected for search engines by web crawlers (aka "spiders") through a procedure termed "spidering". A spider has of course 8 legs. There is now extensive investigation of artificial spiders (High-tech spider for hazardous missions, Research News, 2 November 2011). As yet to be explored is the requisite design of cognitive variants appropriate to exploration of (potentially hazardous) alternative realities (cf. Navigating Alternative Conceptual Realities: clues to the dynamics of enacting new paradigms through movement, 2002).

Eightfold representation: The original Rosetta Stone provided the key to the relationship between three distinct scripts. Exploited as a metaphor, the challenge is now to articulate a dynamic "relationship" between eight distinct cognitive processes. Through what form will an emergent "Rosetta Stone" be sensed? In contrast, the inadequacy of the original stone is evident in that:

• "script" is no longer adequate, or favoured, as a form of presentation -- given the transition from: text > table > graph > animation (YouTube) > simulation > game
• any 8-fold configuration is geometrically problematic in practice, if appropriately distinct, transforms between the facets are to be enabled
• it is questionable whether the distinct cognitive processes can be given adequate expression in any conventional form -- given the inherent complexity of their dynamics

The quest is then for clues as to how the pattern of transformations might be represented. Examples might include

• Cultural symbols: The possibility, and the challenge, can be highlighted through traditional static symbols of the fundamental "elements" of both climate and of psychic integration (whether individual or collective), in each case implying a dynamic and cognitive identification with it:
  • Ba Gua: This is the classical Chinese circular array of 8 trigrams. These are indeed traditionally understood as an interrelated set of transformational possibilities about which is there is very extensive commentary
  • Lauburu: In the case of the four-fold lauburu (the Basque cross), itself reminiscent of the Tao symbol, each head (or arm) is drawn with three sweeps of a compass (upon a scribed cross, employing in each head a common center but two settings, one the half of the other). (cf. Playful exploration of ecopsychological embodiment of climate change pathways, 2005). Imanol Mujica (The Lauburu and Its Symbolism) considers that the lauburu symbolizes mankind, made up of four elements: Form, Life, Sensibility and Conscience. The first head symbolizes form or density, the second head symbolizes life or vitality, the third head symbolizes sensibility and the fourth head is the conscience state. Together they are held to represent nature in action and can be associated with the movement of the Earth around the Sun.
  • Swastika: The traditional Eastern understanding of this (right-facing) symbol (and the Sauwastika, as its left-facing variant) also offers possibilities, as separately discussed (Swastika as Dynamic Pattern Underlying Psychosocial Power Processes: implicate order of Knight's move game-playing sustaining creativity, exploitation and impunity, 2012)
• Transactional games: The cognitive process could be understood as transactional games which can be configured as a set, itself related to the Ba Gua pattern (Cardioid Attractor Fundamental to Sustainability: 8 transactional games forming the heart of sustainable relationship, 2005)
• Cut stones: The facetting of diamond, through which the movement of light is enabled, enhanced and focused, offers further possibilities (Patterning Archetypal Templates of Emergent Order: implications of diamond faceting for enlightening dialogue, 2002; Circulation of the Light: essential metaphor of global sustainability? 2010)

Eightfold dynamics? As representations, all these examples may well imply the transformational processes they endeavour to map. However, as argued above, their imagery tends to obscure the nature of that dynamic as it might be experienced. They are unfortunately "frozen" as with the "types" with which their geometry may be associated. Other imagery, preferably animated, may better catalyze imaginative insight into the dynamic complex of transformation processes. As noted earlier, Hofstadter has explored and identified with the paradoxes of the Mobius strip (I Am a Strange Loop, 2007).

The experiential point to be made is the challenge of recognizing the cognitive process that might bear resemblance to a paradoxical form of the aerobatic maneuver "looping the loop", or -- even more complex -- any corresponding process mapped by a Klein bottle (cf. Intercourse with Globality through Enacting a Klein bottle Cognitive: implication in a polysensorial "lens", 2009; Strategic Complexity 8 Attracting Consensus: Klein is beautiful 8 Sustaining identity in time, 2011). The framing offered by the paradoxical Klein bottle is central to the explorations of Steven M. Rosen (Topologies of the Flesh: a multidimensional exploration of the lifeworld, 2006; Dimensions of Apeiron: a topological phenomenology of space, time, and individuation, 2004).

Perhaps most striking, and with the greatest potential in the light of the argument above, is exploration of the array of broken and unbroken lines in the 8-fold Ba Gua array -- reframed as an array of semiconductors transistors -- even taking the form of a wiring diagram permitting some form of simulation. The merit of the Ba Gua array is that it has been very extensively explored through metaphor to form a cognitive bridge between external (objective) environmental phenomena and internal (subjective) experience. The possibility of internalizing the language offered by electrical metaphors -- notably the semiconductor -- offers new possibilities for engagement with the differences and dilemmas which bedevil psychosocial processes at this time. Considerable research has of course been done on neural network modelling and neural pathways of the brain, most notably in cybernetic terms. The concern here is to what extent the many sophisticated models can be "flown" by those who comprehend them.

There is even the speculative possibility that its complex "circuitry", married with the electrical interpretation, could effectively articulate a form of "radio" -- complete with the "earth" required for "grounding", and "air" consistent with need for an "aerial" (or "antenna"). There is a degree of charm to the possibility that -- beyond the arguments made above for diamond facetting -- that the result could be explored as a simple crystal radio receiver with its antenna, ground and circuit tuning (and the requirement for impedance matching and selectivity). The tuned circuit has a natural resonant frequency, and allows radio signals at this frequency to pass while rejecting signals at all other frequencies (suggestive of the function of a Rosetta "stone"). The crystal functions as a semiconductor detector, extracting the audio signal (modulation) from the radio frequency carrier wave.

With respect to attention, this design merits exploration both in terms of the receptive capacity of any social network as well as in terms of the receptive capacity of an individual -- even privately in meditation. For some, in the latter case especially, it potentially reframes understandings of how the "Word of God" might be "heard" (on different "frequencies" !) -- or reading of the "Akashic Record" (cf. Ervin Laszlo, Science and the Akashic Field: an integral Theory of Everything, 2004).

Images of the Calabi-Yau manifold of string theory as being appropriately suggestive of the dynamic pattern of cognitive transformations
Reproduced from Wikipedia entry on membrane theory Originally on the cover of Scientific American (November 2007)	Reproduced from Wikipedia entry on Calabi-Yau manifold
See also speculative exploration of Global Brane Comprehension Enabling a Higher Dimensional Big Tent? Strategic implication in encompassing nothing and coming to naught (2011)

"Transformation table"? The theme of this argument has been the possibility of imaginative representation of a qualitative analogue of the "multiplication table" (currently serving to reinforce quantative thinking) or the "alphabet" -- which enables a form of literacy increasingly dissociated from the transformational challenges with which people are faced. The question is how such a "table", supportive of the transformations essential to a sustainable quality of life, might be imagined. Although the binary multiplication table is intimately related to the so-calledtruth tableof logical conjunctionoperation, it is clearly not in such terms that more conscious engagement with cognitive transformation processes has been enabled.

The imagery of the Ba Gua, a semiconductor array, or a 3D Smith Chart, all offer suggestive pointers. Missing is the articulation evident in both the multiplication table and any alphabet. Another "table" does however offer suggestive enhancements of this imagery, namely the standard periodic table of chemical elements.

Just as the 8-fold Ba Gua can be "expanded" into the "table" of 64 hexagrams of the I Ching, the 8 classical groups of elements are "expanded" within the periodic table to enable representation of the complete array of elements. Intriguingly, with the development of the 3D variant of the Smith Chart, it might be asked as to whether its mathematical "trickery" would enable a 3D variant of past attempts at a circular representation of that table (cf. A. Piutti, Circular presentation of periodic table of chemical elements, 1925). Such a development would be consistent with recent explorations of the mathematics of the table (Denis H. Rouvray and R. Bruce King (Eds.), The Periodic Table: Into the 21st Century, 2005; The Mathematics of the Periodic Table, 2005). Of great interest are the many variants of the periodic "table" in The INTERNET Database of Periodic Tables.

The question is how cognitive transformation processes could be mapped onto some such array -- in a manner meaningful to those intimately familiar with such processes in their daily lives. Indications of possibilities are discussed separately (Periodic Pattern of Human Knowing: implication of the Periodic Table as metaphor of elementary order, 2009; Towards a Periodic Table of Ways of Knowing -- in the light of metaphors of mathematics, 2009). This is another approach to an argument initially developed in Periodic Pattern of Human Life: the Periodic Table as a metaphor of lifelong learning (2009). The Periodic Table is especially significant in that it is considered to be one of the most comprehensive generalizations of science. The mapping below of the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching onto a sphere will no doubt be further developed in the light of the above-mentioned 3D variant of the Smith Chart.

Selected images of the Yi-globe reproduced with permission from József Drasny (The Image of the Cosmos in the I Ching: the Yi-globe, 2007) in the light of separate discussion in Triangulation of Incommensurable Concepts for Global Configuration (2011)
These images point to the possibility of a correspondence between the spherical organization of conditions of change and the more familiar understanding of how the Earth, as a globe, is exposed to light and darkness

The "harmonic" organization of any periodic "table of transformations" could then be fruitfully explored in musical terms -- in the light of the forms of modulation indicated above. This would then frame the possibility of "tuning" it -- if only according to the tastes of an individual, as previously discussed (Tuning a Periodic Table of Religions, Epistemologies and Spirituality -- including the sciences and other belief systems, 2007). [See, for example, D. C. Harvey, The I Ching Hexagrams Directly Translated Into Music, Math, Geometry And The Zodiac Calendar]

NB: These possibilities have been further developed in a subsequent document (Eightfold Configuration of Nested Cycles of Cognitive Transformations: Meta-pattern of connectivity through a hypersphere? 2012).

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