Cognitive constraints on conventional life raft design

Quantum Wampum Essential to Navigating Ragnarok (Part #8)

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Limitations of the human mind: Of great relevance are the constraints of the human mind in framing and interrelating any set of elements thought to be appropriate to "shelter design" (as metaphorically indicated above). Whilst it could be hypothesized that reality can only be explained with the aid of hundreds of factors (parameters or dimensions), curiously the explanations offered -- even by those with the greatest expertise and authority -- rely on a very limited number of factors, however subtle an interpretation they may require. This limitation is strangely consistent with the much-cited psychological text by cognitive scientist George Miller (The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two, Psychological Review, 1956), as discussed separately (Representation, Comprehension and Communication of Sets: the role of number, 1978).

Requisite variety: Rather than focus on what may be possible "beyond" the Standard Model, it could therefore be argued that that model can be used as a speculative template suggestive of more generic insight, as separately explored (Beyond the Standard Model of Universal Awareness: Being Not Even Wrong? 2010; Metaphorical Insights from the Patterns of Academic Disciplines: learning from the Standard Model of Physics? 2012).

Other fundamental frameworks could indeed be used for this purpose (Patterns of Conceptual Integration, 1984; Patterns of N-foldness: Comparisonof integrated multi-set concept schemes as forms of presentation, 1980), However, the current investment in quantum reality suggests that it offers a requisite richness and integrity to merit wider explanation -- if only as a creative provocation, and irrespective of how its self-selected carers may (predictably) deprecate such exploration.

Comprehensible set of dimensions: A fruitful attitude in engaging in such innovative development -- as with the construction of any shelter on the basis of the tangible materials to hand -- is to consider how many directions (or dimensions) need to be "usefully" taken into consideration for a "viable" outcome (Organization and Lifestyle Design: characteristics of a nonverbal structural language, 1978). Part of the difficulty lies in the subtlety with which directions or dimensions are distinguished and understood as abstractions. In the case of a tangible shelter, these are necessarily obvious and not a focus of controversy.

Essential to this argument is the assumption that human creativity is severely constrained to imagine any explanation or construct which does not derive from a very limited number of "dimensions" or "factors". Any pattern based on larger numbers would simply be condemned as "incredible" and inherently confusing. Strangely the number of days of the week (6 + 1) offers an excellent example across cultures -- consistent with the constraint identified by George Miller (as noted above). As discussed further below, their naming offers an interesting relation to the challenge of Ragnarok. The unquestioning distinction of this 7-fold pattern across cultures is an astounding indication of a cognitive box within which people find it habitually convenient to order their lives.

In-the-box thinking: To illustrate the degree of conceptual entrapment in restrictive frameworks of this kind, consider the following correspondences between the days of the week and the Norse gods or their Roman variants. The question such patterns raise is what capacity of discernment is projected into such frameworks with an implication that it offers comprehensive, coherent and integrative insight. It could be argued more generally that such distinctions are recognized fuzzily (if not with a degree of incoherence), variously aided by intuition, and reinforced by the logic and methodology suggested by the framework -- and its quest for (en)closure. Problematic correspondences may well derive from the limitations of cognitive capacity -- rather than from assertions made through the argumentation of a particular framework.

Days of the week (employed worldwide)				*	Corresponding deities (notably implicated in Ragnarok)
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Sunday-I	*	Mani	Tiw	Wodan	Sunna
Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday-II	*	Thor.	Fríge.	Lördag	?

Patterns of symmetry: Larger numbers can however be used provided relatively simple patterns of symmetry can be recognized -- although there are interesting constraints to the wider "deployment" of such explanations (Dynamics of Symmetry Group Theorizing: comprehension of psycho-social implication, 2008). These are most notable with respect to extreme discoveries of mathematics such as the Monster Group (Potential Psychosocial Significance of Monstrous Moonshine: an exceptional form of symmetry as a Rosetta stone for cognitive frameworks, 2007; Theories of Correspondences -- and potential equivalences between them in correlative thinking, 2007). It is appropriate to note that a mathematical "proof" -- confirming the existence of the Monster group -- takes the form of 10,000 pages spread across 500 journals.

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