tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3303745373329215612024-02-21T17:02:09.476+10:00Otoom blogMartin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.comBlogger95125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-75000385082068383582018-01-19T04:55:00.000+10:002018-07-17T02:05:25.939+10:00North and South Korea in 10 years' time?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">This article first appeared on the
Otoom <a href="http://www.facebook.com/people/Martin-Wurzinger/1209002076" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://au.linkedin.com/pub/martin-wurzinger/53/667/4b7" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> page on 11 January 2018. Its real home is
here.</span></span></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">North and South Korea are holding
talks (yet again, but still). May I suggest a possible situation in, say, 10
years' time. </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The two Koreas are united, the
(previous) North benefiting from the economic strength of the (previous) South,
the South benefiting from the nuclear capability of the North. China benefits
from a border nation that does not invite ongoing opprobrium from the rest of
the world which so often disturbs its own plans. An ever more dissolute US will
be largely on the side lines as far as Asia, represented by its major economic
and political powers, is concerned. The EU, stronger than ever, is in a
position to take advantage of the increasing might of Asia, no longer having to
deal with a relatively distant Britain since that nation has now left the Union
and has reverted to its traditional alignment with the US.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">An educated guess perhaps, but
educated nevertheless. Consider the dynamics as they exist.</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The Korean War has never been
resolved, and through all this time the North saw itself on the defensive but
proved to itself the capacity to overcome so many difficulties even if that
meant resorting to circumvention tactics. Those difficulties it can do without.
The South opened itself to the world and competed successfully, partly
supported by the US but essentially because they could. Despite all that, North
and South are one people hampered by existing treaties and pacts. Yet blood is
thicker than ink; in Asia that matters. China is forging ahead with its One
Road policy, and unfettered economies can only be an advantage. All the while
the US has demonstrated its lack of understanding during its participation in
so many conflicts (it failed in Vietnam, it made matters arguably worse in the
Middle East, and for 70 years its role in the Koreas didn't bring that conflict
to a solution either). Britain's secession from the EU diminishes its own
status, but enhances that of the EU due to the relocation of so many economic
entities to the continent. And in any case, Britain was never really on the
same page as continental Europe, while its alignment with the US entails for it
the consequences of anything the US invites for itself.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">All this can be identified. The
only question is, do Asian leaders draw such conclusions and if so, what
exactly is happening behind the scenes already?</span></span></span></div>
</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-31093815853262133072015-02-18T08:30:00.001+10:002015-02-18T08:30:24.721+10:00Want to discuss anything about the mind?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span>This topic is for anyone who wants
to have a discussion with me or others about the Otoom mind model, about
artificial minds in general, or anything related to the subject of mind,
humans, society.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span>For some it may be more
convenient than using the <a href="http://www.otoom.net/contact.htm" target="_blank">contact page</a> or <a href="http://au.linkedin.com/pub/martin-wurzinger/53/667/4b7" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> or <a href="http://www.facebook.com/people/Martin-Wurzinger/1209002076" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.</span></span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-88655240599884276712014-09-03T10:18:00.002+10:002017-10-27T10:12:19.369+10:00Have anything to say about SS Mayaroma?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYAsqRaChaKLYn4G30mAL4xT_uSCKyjURU8E9ptOCYeT-tqebRZl8YJ5h5SIyPQjh5b9bD5VhCRGmHXgJNF_1cwlML4d3A9ZyyfDErpM0MWGpBUqPREG4Etl-vTLQQQjZ9Xe9H05kd1t4/s1600/mayaroma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYAsqRaChaKLYn4G30mAL4xT_uSCKyjURU8E9ptOCYeT-tqebRZl8YJ5h5SIyPQjh5b9bD5VhCRGmHXgJNF_1cwlML4d3A9ZyyfDErpM0MWGpBUqPREG4Etl-vTLQQQjZ9Xe9H05kd1t4/s1600/mayaroma.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">A number of people have asked how they could leave a comment on my <a href="http://www.otoom.net/osmf/" target="_blank">forum</a> regarding Mayaroma and all that. It is closed because I don't have the time to check for any spam and keep up with the latest means of protection.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">Well, this post exists for just that purpose.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">So, have your say!</span></span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-85515044089188194052013-11-20T09:03:00.001+10:002013-11-20T09:06:05.836+10:00Can there ever be a deed as dark as this?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Back in the school days we played a
what-if game: what if a Caesar or an Alexander the Great had tanks, or jet
fighters? And so we imagined all kinds of situations the Germanic tribes or the
Egyptians would have had to deal with.</span></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Of course, it was silly. If
metallurgy, or aerodynamics had evolved sufficiently, the other side would have
had something similar and so the advantage would not have been of the kind we
boys indulged in.</span></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Today we invent a new material
almost every month. We know more and more about galaxies far away. We
experiment with the atom. Our literature, our art, our very way of thinking
expands into areas that were hidden even from our phantasises not so long ago.</span></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">All this is possible because of
minds who over the generations have processed and manipulated information discovered
by those before them. The more there is known the greater the opportunity to
explore further still.</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">For Europe it began in the 17th
century when individuals here and there dared to step beyond the confines their
church had manufactured. Like an animal reared in captivity which can't believe
the space outside its cage is real, most huddled fearfully within the prison
that was built around them. Yet Descartes, Spinoza, Newton, and later Maxwell,
Euler, Bohr and all the others made use of the freedom which at first seemed so
alien.</span></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">At first retribution had been
swift, for a Galileo as well as for a Giordano Bruno. Galileo, the rational
scientist, relented and hid his notes for later while suffering house arrest.
Bruno, the fiery monk, did not and was tortured by the Inquisition for eight
years before finally burned at the stake.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">For a thousand years the darkness
was thrown over the European mind, and for a thousand years a curios
intelligence was treated to cruelty only those inspired by a god can invent.</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Now consider: if four hundred years
of science have resulted in our current state of knowledge, where would we be
today if the entire process had started around 500CE? If particle colliders had
been around in 900CE? If Otto the Great would have been on Facebook? If the
plagues had been treated with modern medicine?</span></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Furthermore, if the intelligent
minds then had been allowed to continue from the discoveries of ancient Greece
and Rome?</span></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Conjecture is fraught with danger
if it is done on a small scale. But just as all the variance contained within
the space of two thousand years is so abundant, so is the potential of its
posited version. Hence this kind of musing is justified.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">And so I ask: what abhorrence is it
that engulfs an entire continent in such darkness for a thousand years?</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-33911693023807464762013-07-16T10:25:00.000+10:002013-07-16T10:32:23.853+10:00The strange things white people do<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In this 21st century there are a
number of things - mannerism, customs, call them what you will - that white
people have adopted which must seem quite strange to the rest of the world.</span></span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">They developed gradually; they
didn't drop from the sky. Yet they are firmly established though by no means
shared by every citizen. Here they are, in no particular order:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">An obsession with finding faults in
one's own culture. At the same time similar problems, many of them far worse,
are blithely ignored in others, or at the very least couched in strenuous
euphemisms to avoid even the slightest hint of sounding critical.</span></span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">An intense, almost adulatory focus
on mediocrity while being fearful of acknowledging intelligence and hard work
and the role they play in achieving success. The former is turned into a
virtual badge of honour, the latter treated as something almost shameful. While
rising above adversity should be valued, the current package, broadcast ad
nauseam, has turned dysfunction into a prerequisite for social status.</span></span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A genuflecting, adoring attitude
towards indigenous people, the only remnant of humanity that did not even reach
the pastoral stage. On the other hand there is virtually no entity - whether
corporation, university, government - which does not emphasise the need to
innovate, to stay a-breast, to remain competitive. Sometimes even a month's
worth of disengagement is seen as a disadvantage and here there are people who
haven't changed for tens of thousands of years. What irony: the more
competitive and hence successful one is the higher the taxes and therefore the
more money these individuals pay towards the million-dollar packages shunted
towards the few percentage points representing an indigenous population.</span></span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The embrace of the ideological side
of feminism. Is there any Western TV commercial in which the male is not the
idiot while the female is the all-wise, all-knowing one? The adulation of the
Child has created youngsters, and by now already adults, who are self-obsessed,
pampered, and indulge in habits which have led to epidemics even. For the first
time in recorded history the next generation is feared to have a lesser life
expectancy than their parents through their self-imposed habits. Teachers
are being assaulted in classrooms by their pupils. Responsibility has given way to
Rights.</span></span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The fear of sex. Drawn from the
historical background of Middle Eastern myths spreading into Europe at the time
one would have thought the phantasies have been more or less dealt with.
Combine this with the feminists' vision of the Child and the celebration of
victimhood and touching one piece of skin is fine but move along a few
centimetres and the result is supposed to be a life-long trauma, obsessively
protected and eagerly paraded in public awaiting the payouts. Hysteria and its
protagonists enjoy celebrity status but the voices of calm and reason are
howled down in the melee.</span></span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As said before, it wasn't always
so. Presently however there is no Western government that does not have a
problem with its budget because of piled-on demands by special interest groups,
and the shift in power and influence from Western demographics towards others,
more viable ones, is on the way. The disrespect can manifest through military
attacks, the organisational framework surrounding refugees of any kind, the
laying-down of rules deciding cross-border initiatives, the violence
perpetrated by outsiders within their host nation.</span></span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">All of the above are factors that
influence the very foundation on which a society rests. It is sad to observe
such degeneracy when its causes are so, well, downright stupid.</span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-70027410958974223822013-06-21T08:33:00.004+10:002013-06-21T08:33:45.851+10:00Creativity - and its dark side II<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The functional details described in
the previous blog, <a href="http://otoomblog.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/creativity-and-its-dark-side-i.html" target="_blank">Creativity - and its dark side I</a>, can also be found on
the larger scale. As we move from the individual to groups, to demographics, to
society and beyond, affinity relationships between clusters and their latent
and manifested versions can be identified too. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The larger scale does change the
dynamics somewhat, if not in functional terms then certainly as far as their
content is concerned. Instead of neurons we have people, the domains become
demographics (ie, like-minded individuals), and the affinity relationships
concern the ideas and concepts shared by their members. Communication does not
occur via synapses but across the channels a society's infrastructure makes
possible and which are used by the groups. Therefore what gets transmitted and
how becomes once again a matter of affinities since such relationships in
effect rely on the inherent nature of the former; that is to say, their
functionalities.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">How these interactions go through
their paces is outlined below. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">On the larger scale of wider
society the variety of its members and the level at which the particular
functionalities manifest become significant. The conscious is now the space of
openly communicated ideas and concepts, the subconscious is found in the realm
of the unstated, the hidden. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Just as in the single mind, the
hidden is outside the direct control of regulatory processes but it still
exists, takes part in information processing, and every now and then steps into
the open. To what extent it is allowed to spread and so participate further in
the explicit, depends on its neighbours and how their affinity potential is
capable of interacting with a similar potential on the explicit's side. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The probabilities here follow
similar comparative ranges to those on the small scale, and here they are influenced
by the size of the population, the quality of infrastructure, and the quality
and quantity of information as such.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The regulatory processes in the
single mind, consisting of the conscious thought structures (TSs) with their
affinities and relationships and honed through many years of exposure to
society's mores and fashions, have their equivalent in the open. Here they are
derived from our laws, regulations, and what is loosely called the zeitgeist.
While they determine what is openly said and done, underneath their watch
large-scale cognitive dynamics take place nevertheless. How well they are kept
invisible is a matter of, once again, affinity relationships. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">In this case however it is not the
existent affinities which in the main define their visibility or otherwise, but
the non-existent, latent ones. That is to say, the greater the number of such
contact points between the visible and invisible clusters, the more hints can
be expected for an observer to become aware of something more behind the
immediate. Of course, like in any interaction between functional entities in a
dynamic system, the outcome depends on their mutual relationship: the observer
is as much part of the scenario as is the observed.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Descriptions, arguments, battles
even, regarding the visible manifestations of the large-scale cognitive
dynamics are conducted with the actor usually oblivious to the much larger
realm of the unstated, and if someone should refer to them they leave
themselves open to criticism - the aspect of intrusion being more decisive than
any truth value. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Similarly, the dynamics resident in
the single mind are also active. They inform the individual's response to any
event, and in their aggregate form influence the ambience of wider society, or
at the very least some part of it.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The overall ambience colours the
wider space, which in turn evokes the affinities down to the small scale, which
then become the source of further input to the wider space; the circle has
closed.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The feedback loop creates the
cultural continuum, and the smaller detail provides the elements for change.
The lesser the potential for affinity relationships with the hidden, the fewer
such agents of change there are. In terms of effect, censorship and/or lower
intelligence (ie, more compact cognitive dynamics) lead to stagnation, to
rigidity. Given the relationship between input and the creation of clusters,
censorship, in other words paucity of information, makes for compact dynamics.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Conversely, their opposites
create the framework for adaptability, progress, and so evolution. Both can be
readily observed in the real. </span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_wrodH4Rt-SfXEbhnfgIGC_OEioTiLrWyqQ_mutbUygo0UWEkVY8iuxSQ0EeO4AJ0pLAnv7oT8vh-ad1tJyK9Txp-Wuym5B8xWTXSLqRiyW4UaMdZ8_3mVwHXcewquE-yQ2d0EkZ9-4c/s1600/ABCBuildingConstruction-comb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_wrodH4Rt-SfXEbhnfgIGC_OEioTiLrWyqQ_mutbUygo0UWEkVY8iuxSQ0EeO4AJ0pLAnv7oT8vh-ad1tJyK9Txp-Wuym5B8xWTXSLqRiyW4UaMdZ8_3mVwHXcewquE-yQ2d0EkZ9-4c/s320/ABCBuildingConstruction-comb.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The two images represent a metaphor
to the above. On the left is the original photo showing much detail (the ABC
building during its construction at Southbank, Brisbane, Australia). On the
right is the pixelated version. The mind is able to create a much more
comprehensive 'story' from the first image, much less so from the second. As a
consequence, the chance of anything else being related to the detailed content is
considerably greater, giving rise to further TSs. Coarse TSs are far less
fertile.</span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">An example of the interplay between
the conscious and the subconscious would be the concept of the 'demon lover', a
conceptualisation of the hidden Eros seeking expression and so eloquently
described in <a href="http://satyrosphilbrucato.wordpress.com/2013/04/27/mad-bad-dangerous-the-demon-lover-part-i/" target="_blank">"Mad, Bad & Dangerous: The Demon Lover"</a>. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Where would Art be without our dark
side?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-16663745766359831642013-06-13T08:34:00.000+10:002013-07-16T10:34:19.564+10:00Creativity - and its dark side I<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The concept of creativity has
always been surrounded by mystique. A thought that appears seemingly out of
nowhere in often unrelated situations, and yet so welcome. Many people even
ascribed its source to a god.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Still, under the perspective of
cognitive dynamics it can be explained. And so, like much else in science, the
previous mystery gets replaced by the awe before the sheer versatile complexity
of nature.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">To aid the understanding what
follows, it may help the reader to go through the <a href="http://www.otoom.net/faqs.htm" target="_blank">FAQs page</a> on the Otoom
website for a primer, particularly on functionalities, abstractions, affinities
and latency; they appear in that order. Not the full story by far, but it's a
start.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhdJAVbj5Z0Bf8KxB8RtK7FezR84mTyqptwVbsxBE2jF_IKht0INNiArJPs5EInEabLmMxXqbeYxx7Sm2WZHWA9VwSb3dlzjVwFYx5zg6tQ9y4jwi3Px19Dg5sth9o777aO9aH0ViI6dg/s1600/GothamCity1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhdJAVbj5Z0Bf8KxB8RtK7FezR84mTyqptwVbsxBE2jF_IKht0INNiArJPs5EInEabLmMxXqbeYxx7Sm2WZHWA9VwSb3dlzjVwFYx5zg6tQ9y4jwi3Px19Dg5sth9o777aO9aH0ViI6dg/s320/GothamCity1.png" width="250" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-size: small;"><i>State Law building, 50 Ann St, Brisbane, Australia. Its nickname is
"Gotham City tower". Is that rendition a creative interpretation?</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">If there are thought structures
(TSs) which define the content of a representative complex within the neurons
(which is the result of some input), then, given the existence of ongoing
dynamics, the non-existence of a cluster of TSs that could have been evoked is
due to other TSs having been more influential. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The first question is, could the
same input have been responsible for both - the existent TSs as well as the
absent ones? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Since the emergence of a cluster is
a function not only of input but also of the affinity relationships active
within the functional scope of that neighbourhood, a certain input could indeed
eventually create a cluster in one area but not in another.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The entire system is composed of
neurons that are highly interconnected. It follows that outside the existent
cluster there had been an insufficient effect from the input - in other words,
there is latency but no instantiation of a re-representation. While the latency
(ie, the non-instantiation) ensures non-representative clusters along the
current timeline, it equally ensures the potential for a cumulative effect of
affinities which at any given time lead to the formation of some other TS
complex. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">TSs of course not only occur in the
grey matter of our brains but also in its white counterpart. Or, to put this
another way, they are not only part of our conscious thought processes but they
are also part of our subconscious.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Which leads to the next question:
is it possible for latent structures to be a source of conscious thought?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">For affinities to come into being
they need an abundance of functional elements (the neurons in the wetware, the
nodes in the computer program); they need connectivity; and they need the 'right'
input, meaning input that represents a pattern, ie is not random. White matter
fulfils the first condition (there are more neurons than in the grey matter)
and it also possesses a high degree of connectivity. Which leaves us with the
input.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The functional space of conscious
TSs does not lend itself to random input, or any random data stream for that
matter. There is also the distinct probability of potentially affinitive
clusters. After all, the information content there has been derived from our
subconscious via affinities in the first place. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The answer rests on the degree of
variance within the conscious TSs such that an affinity event lies within the
probability envelope of the subconscious TSs. Conscious TSs are more configured
(since they rely on instantiated representative content) and hence possess less
latency. Subconscious TSs on the other hand reside within a larger volume, have
more latency, and in their ongoing dynamics are not restricted to preconfigured
clusters. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">If we take the affinities to be
members of a set, and the conscious and subconscious clusters to be two
particular sets, with the latter (B) being considerably larger than the former
(A), we can express the issue as follows: what is more likely, one or more
members of A occurring in B, or one or more members of B occurring in A?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">In terms of probabilities the first
scenario is more likely, provided we assume a finite and set pool from which
all members of both sets are drawn. Although that assumption may seem rather inappropriate
based on our analogy, it becomes less so once we consider that (a), the system
is a dynamic one in which all information is a candidate for dispersal
throughout the system on a continuing basis, and (b), the affinities (latent or
otherwise) constitute the re-representative, ie processed, content of such
input, that is to say, they have evolved under the same overall conditions and
are subject to the same rules of complex, dynamic systems. In other words, we
do have that pool from our analogy, except in our case the pool holds
functionalities.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">While realisations from latent
affinities are not a certainty (after all, we are dealing with probabilities
all the way through the process), these probabilities do not, cannot, have a
zero value due to their very nature. Make the timeline long enough and some
affinity relationship between a latent subconscious cluster and its conscious
equivalent can develop. On the higher level of mental perception (ie, our human
interpretation) there would be a train of thought suddenly being 'interrupted'
by a seemingly new idea - except that the label 'new' only comes from our
perception. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The latter excludes the
subconscious by definition. So the idea is not 'new' at all; rather, it has
been waiting in the wings all along, as it were. Hence creativity, the name
given to that seemingly mysterious appearance of a novel idea, takes it mystery
from the limited scope of our conscious thoughts, keeping all the other
cognitive processes hidden from view. Yet they do exist, and under the right
circumstances they pop into our awareness.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">And the dark side? Because thoughts
so suddenly appearing in our consciousness start their formation in the
subconscious where our will to invite or suppress does not apply, we have no
control over their presence. Our social constraints hold no sway, and still
they are the children of nature; our nature.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">To paraphrase <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Infernal_Desire_Machines_of_Doctor_Hoffman" target="_blank">Angela Carter</a>,
unbidden they come.</span></span><br />
<br />
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</xml><![endif]--><a href="http://otoomblog.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/creativity-and-its-dark-side-ii.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Creativity - and its dark side II</span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";"> </span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-88075452337834053012013-05-23T10:08:00.001+10:002014-09-08T11:15:37.971+10:00Home<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">What does it mean to be at home?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Affinity:</span></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when you speak using a certain inflection
and the other knows exactly what you mean;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when you leave a sentence hanging
in mid-air and it says more than any words;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when you make a small gesture and
it conveys a whole story;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when you don't say anything and
everybody understands;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when you don't mistake your
friends for adversaries and adversaries for friends;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">where there is no need to retreat
into a state of separateness in the face of some negativity.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Customs:</span></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when you do the right thing with
no instructions needed;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when everybody behaves the same
way because the situation means the same to everybody;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when something can be handled at
a distance because direct feedback is unnecessary;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when a group performs in unison
without a specially prepared script;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">where simple silence is just as
meaningful.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Background:</span></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when the beginning of a story is
enough to evoke its meaning;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when a memory from one's youth
can be shared as if it had been an experience for all;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when the intent behind a myth
serves as the explanation;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when a piece of history can be
used as a gateway by everyone;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when there is a problem and all
parties speak from a similar context;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">where criticism does not
automatically imply the categorising into some 'other', simply because there is
no 'other'.</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">How many of us can say the above
happens to them once a day, once a week, once a month - ever?</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-63160393758604918152013-05-02T16:38:00.002+10:002014-09-08T11:17:37.020+10:00Is this scary?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The unexpected is sometimes scary.
I don't mean waiting for a bus and now there are two; or getting a letter from
someone after years of silence.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">I mean situations that burst into
our personal mind space dislodging what has become accepted as usual. Suddenly
there is something else, and it just shouldn't be there.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">At the very least it can be
unsettling.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">There is a Japanese ghost story
which unfolds along these lines. I don't know its author, or whether it has
been told and retold through the ages.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">It goes like this:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Back in the feudal days a wide
avenue skirted the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. One late night a farmer made his
way home, alone on this wide, deserted street. Suddenly he noticed a little
girl, all by herself hunched on the kerb. He went up to her and said,
"Hello, little girl, what are you doing all alone this late at night?"
But the girl did not move. So the farmer went closer and asked again, "My
child, is there anything wrong?" Then slowly the girl raised her head, and
her face was smooth like an egg.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In Melbourne there is a
small niche at the end of Degraves Street which is filled with graffiti. It
reminded me of that ghost story.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-nVC3sL8mPA2xQL3JEYsXYLGUocyTuwRbkYiRtllhEJwgjITdV21_nm7uts09Zw8JsLbGamIOOQ49UwHFPt1HasVp9v5y8tGPSAClD3H_4ZNLJ04i1v08ZL8kZEXxtOBtnBivnfOlyvo/s1600/GirlInLaneway1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-nVC3sL8mPA2xQL3JEYsXYLGUocyTuwRbkYiRtllhEJwgjITdV21_nm7uts09Zw8JsLbGamIOOQ49UwHFPt1HasVp9v5y8tGPSAClD3H_4ZNLJ04i1v08ZL8kZEXxtOBtnBivnfOlyvo/s320/GirlInLaneway1.png" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
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<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Would the following situations be
scary?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Lying alone in bed at night,
sticking your foot out and suddenly feeling some touch.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Looking over your shoulder in a
dark and lonely street, over and over again (try it!). </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Closing your eyes for a moment,
opening them again but you can't see.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Closing your eyes for a moment,
opening them again and suddenly there is a face staring at you.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Your daily routine involves getting
up in the morning and catching a train to work. One day you think the alarm
clock is wrong, you get up in a hurry and rush to the station. There you notice
the clocks don't work either. At that moment, what is your perception of time?
Have you ever experienced this?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">We like to believe life is ordered.
Yet it doesn't take much to shatter our peace.</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-49804359657208570952013-04-18T10:44:00.000+10:002013-04-18T10:44:07.348+10:00The self-strangulating society<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Definitions of society abound. In many
cases they explain more about the persons offering them than about society.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">From a more general perspective
this large-scale human activity system we call society can be described in
terms of two sets: the rulers and the ruled. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">(To forestall any misunderstanding –
by ‘rulers’ I mean those members of society who exert an influence over others,
however subliminally or accommodating the others, the ruled in this case, may
be in their response)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Rulers evoke dynamics that are
acting downwards, towards those they influence. The ruled either merely adjust
their behaviour or their reaction is more antagonistic. In both cases their
dynamics are acting upwards.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">These dynamics are generally fluid.
At any given time their source can experience a role reversal. For example, a
response can be so dramatic it forces the rulers to defend themselves, or an
authority might adjust its behaviour because of the feedback it receives.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Since any system needs resources to
function at all, a society can be said to represent a human activity system
that has the space, the members, and the resources to perform in terms of a
given set of dynamics in the form of a mutually interdependent framework. Take
any one of those elements away, or diminish their capacity for that matter, and
the system will lose its aggregate whole. That is to say, its functional
details will have lost their capacity to play their - mutually interdependent –
role.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Note that any labeling under the
auspices of politics, ideology, religion, any judgmental description that might
be applied through some ethics or morals, does not come into it. All those are
interpretations by someone, they sit aside the system itself. Just like
electricity operates according to Maxwell's equations and something like lightening,
or heaters, or a cosy atmosphere are human descriptions of the same phenomenon.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">In that sense complex,
interdependent systems define themselves according to their respective capacity
to realise their potential within their neighbourhood. It is this capacity
which can be observed from various positions within the system and as a
consequence gives rise to this or that label, sometimes followed by arguments
about the ultimate truthfulness of the label. As far as the latter is concerned
there is no ultimate truth. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">What the members of a society make
of themselves, or what others make of them, can be as varied as circumstances
or perceptual triggers are able to evoke.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Suppose some divers come across a scene such as the one below:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhth25iNd_4u3TV3eNbIijX7ALfhyOw2W2-xZLAkNVnawaKwsiYjfIOypatiu-3BxSGuY0yfylum-uMBbD1zi_DLYtU_d8akNKlHhHy0tUCF5UTZP94VBXT5R4M7HWx7CsGh5BP35Mlahg/s1600/thatswhy2640x480.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhth25iNd_4u3TV3eNbIijX7ALfhyOw2W2-xZLAkNVnawaKwsiYjfIOypatiu-3BxSGuY0yfylum-uMBbD1zi_DLYtU_d8akNKlHhHy0tUCF5UTZP94VBXT5R4M7HWx7CsGh5BP35Mlahg/s320/thatswhy2640x480.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">What thoughts would cross their
minds? Their assumptions, however realistic or otherwise, become part of the
definition. To what extent these survive is a matter for the aggregate ambience
and how much room it gives to its imagery.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Human activity systems are first
and foremost complex systems. The reality is far more faceted than the
dichotomy of ruler and ruled suggests. Such labels are in themselves rather
ambiguous. A ruler needs a target; the target requires the awareness of being
ruled. The more complex the society, the more variance it possesses, the more
types of rules and their respective foci it can entertain.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">To rule, and to live under a rule,
requires resources. Rich, complex societies have the capacity to furnish the
controlling layers - whoever or whatever they may be - with the necessary means
to sustain their dynamics. The result is a steady growth of controlling
entities. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The society's wealth ensures their
survival and the variance of the society guarantees enough opportunities
without having to fight for space. As long as the supply routes remain intact
the system becomes subject to ever more regulatory frameworks. Indeed, members
who are ruled over in one context may well decide the most convenient solution
is to become an authority themselves. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Should the resources become
jeopardised, the alternative mentioned above becomes less and less viable and
the dynamics acquire a competitive aspect.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The strangulating web they
altogether weave becomes a prison of convenience. A grotesque version of a
mutual admiration society in which the shared mediocrity is used as a seemingly
bottomless bag of spoils with something for everyone. And, like ruling classes
everywhere, none of them give up their place willingly. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">One could say our obsession with
economic growth stems from the subconscious fear of having to fight for one’s
preferences should the resources dry up.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">How then to define society? Take
your pick.</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-27256965407439000662013-01-10T01:24:00.001+10:002013-07-01T07:12:25.251+10:00Perpetual motion and poverty<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Perpetual
motion engines are a figment of some people's imagination. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_thermodynamics" target="_blank">Law of Thermodynamics</a> tells us that. Every now and then one comes across a truly
elaborate contraption, as if the builder had intended to push the moment of
reckoning as far as possible into the future (<a href="http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/museum/unwork.htm" target="_blank">examples</a>). No matter; the
total energy in a closed system is constant.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Yet the
laws of physics are not restricted to mechanical, electrical or chemical
devices, they apply to nature in general. It is here one gets the impression
the rules about energy-in and energy-out are sometimes quietly forgotten.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Take
the phenomenon of poverty. There are some who believe it can be abolished if
only the right policies were applied. Others simply don't care. It also means
different things to different societies (compare Australia with Nigeria for
example), but more of this later.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">What
follows is a view that brings the principle of finite energy to the issue.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">To set
the scene, let's consider a simple mechanical device first. Suppose our
'engine', a system, consists of three subsystems which need energy to operate.
Let's call them <b>A</b>, <b>B</b>, and <b>C</b>. If each subsystem (a wheel, a lever, or whatever)
needs 100 energy units to work, and if <b>A</b> performs its complete function within
1 time unit <b>t</b>, <b>B</b> does it within 2 time units, and <b>C</b> needs 4, the total power
for the system can be expressed through the following equation:</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0YNbPRWXSh093sQEAw7VhPXJmw_bZgCFcN3tTrUaMDtsecmKKhRFUFaqi7Sl5I_nwFi8xuor7Q8jLW79ecuNB4WczCSqCQ9eIIOc2mzCVjair_mxVZVpZn_t3EsXsPP0Td-IxzSo86xo/s1600/EquationBasic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="noborder" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0YNbPRWXSh093sQEAw7VhPXJmw_bZgCFcN3tTrUaMDtsecmKKhRFUFaqi7Sl5I_nwFi8xuor7Q8jLW79ecuNB4WczCSqCQ9eIIOc2mzCVjair_mxVZVpZn_t3EsXsPP0Td-IxzSo86xo/s1600/EquationBasic.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This
applies to the ideal case where waste (for example, in the form of friction)
does not occur. Since <b>P</b> equals energy over time (E/t), the amount of energy
this particular system needs is 42.86 energy units:</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0L06FdQj7v2Sglo9alrThDg4O99h1qpT1T_eihI8QvMss0lXWwRpLOLRxt4WXBTFbJdP0qgpng9Nemn0MWOMWt8xahcjuSuBl6qvXko4bddb3iFifPr08RQ-4m7Aheqxpf3sCN_orXCs/s1600/EquationBasicAsNumbers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="noborder" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0L06FdQj7v2Sglo9alrThDg4O99h1qpT1T_eihI8QvMss0lXWwRpLOLRxt4WXBTFbJdP0qgpng9Nemn0MWOMWt8xahcjuSuBl6qvXko4bddb3iFifPr08RQ-4m7Aheqxpf3sCN_orXCs/s1600/EquationBasicAsNumbers.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">leading to</span> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisAhPa8ziNaTp0CKXDLGWa1TGINB5L7DI-e_XMG-Q9RI1QTEcpvsIKSZXKHs7Bk4XfVP5LSC1RPD-JKgj58bxsHksEog67EV5B0eN5094hrVEQfjBQewmljT9DWBBppN6BG7YEqMvysIg/s1600/EquationBasicAsResult.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="noborder" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisAhPa8ziNaTp0CKXDLGWa1TGINB5L7DI-e_XMG-Q9RI1QTEcpvsIKSZXKHs7Bk4XfVP5LSC1RPD-JKgj58bxsHksEog67EV5B0eN5094hrVEQfjBQewmljT9DWBBppN6BG7YEqMvysIg/s1600/EquationBasicAsResult.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Yet
wastage does exist; the technical term is entropy. Let's call it <b>x</b>, and so the
new equation is as follows:</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFOiqcGXgA7X9nGOJ8mk9aHPe7nV90IzaNDVmL2403kvI5L2w5YpgdclPXIoxLC2xmh26sFvAP9PxEWaB5zI8MlOB84Vo2MimMdkDh8I0ikSLKCrsQNAuJEjorBVMlgtDhJNcsimTdts/s1600/EquationIncX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="noborder" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFOiqcGXgA7X9nGOJ8mk9aHPe7nV90IzaNDVmL2403kvI5L2w5YpgdclPXIoxLC2xmh26sFvAP9PxEWaB5zI8MlOB84Vo2MimMdkDh8I0ikSLKCrsQNAuJEjorBVMlgtDhJNcsimTdts/s1600/EquationIncX.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">and
using our previous performance values it becomes</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz7PQguWPhVurnYhdgPyy7rd-kI5phrBTJsJoHf3o6ViByAQu1EPAgxcyKNk0Rqeg3_sPScITJ_1fZhOOiUwbM6Bpwr1zNM0_AaLE6kQ7JYpMw4FC-VFfnybt7JZ-3MmIzLztPgRgktqk/s1600/EquationIncXAsNumbers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="noborder" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz7PQguWPhVurnYhdgPyy7rd-kI5phrBTJsJoHf3o6ViByAQu1EPAgxcyKNk0Rqeg3_sPScITJ_1fZhOOiUwbM6Bpwr1zNM0_AaLE6kQ7JYpMw4FC-VFfnybt7JZ-3MmIzLztPgRgktqk/s1600/EquationIncXAsNumbers.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">If <b>x</b> =
0.2, so that the performance of each subsystem is now of <b>t - x</b> duration, the
result is</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYpBIfAupPDPBFMgsVvwNbZX4vRSFvUr1_eKMBW51ahobFlwJMLEp3HcCK-L2uoc3Ad1sjwGVtznWcmr-AoQnNOAWjdXCqidfzV8X2eSwFKqtYuuQz2_CWMZ9eEEU5Z86fn1EUs244Mvo/s1600/EquationIncXAsResult.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="noborder" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYpBIfAupPDPBFMgsVvwNbZX4vRSFvUr1_eKMBW51ahobFlwJMLEp3HcCK-L2uoc3Ad1sjwGVtznWcmr-AoQnNOAWjdXCqidfzV8X2eSwFKqtYuuQz2_CWMZ9eEEU5Z86fn1EUs244Mvo/s1600/EquationIncXAsResult.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Since
we expressed the entire system's operation as a ratio of time, then with
wastage included the total amount of energy needed has increased if the
duration should remain the same as in the first example.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Use
anything you like for <b>A</b>, <b>B</b>, and <b>C</b> and the relationships between energy and
performance are the same. </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">We can
turn this around and say, if the supply of energy to a given system is fixed,
and if one of its modules experiences a shortfall caused by wastage or demand
or anything unforeseen, then the performance of the affected module will have
decreased. </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Society
can be seen as a system (one of the advantages of the Otoom model). There are
subsystems and sub-subsystems and so on, and they can be identified in terms of
energy needed, their respective performance, and also their wastage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Overall
the energy is fixed too, although a complex dynamic system allows temporary
measures to be taken so that it may appear to the members as if more energy is
there for the taking. Yet, as the Law of Thermodynamics states, the total
energy in a closed system is constant and entropy is being produced. In the
end, human activity systems are part of a closed system.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">While
the subsystems etc are mutually interdependent, they are also semi-autonomous
because humans entertain choices and act on them. Therefore a shortfall
somewhere (which, after all, is inevitable) becomes subject to compensatory
measures due to our competitive and assertive nature. </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Which
module, and so who will be left with the effects of the resultant shortage
becomes a function of those members' particular inability to overcome the
pressures from the rest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The end
result is poverty - manifest through the lack of means to attract more energy
per se. Since most societies use money as a means to express the value of goods
and services, in practical terms poverty means less money compared to the rest.
What qualities (in the positive as well as the negative sense) play a role
during the process of energy and performance distribution depends on the
overall values a society has at any given time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">For
example (somewhat simplified but not unrealistic), artists become less valued
in times of war compared to members of the military. When peace returns the
situation can be reversed: soldiers descend the social ladder, artists ascend.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The
rather harsh conclusion is that poverty is here to stay; first and foremost not
for reasons of ethics, politics or some ideology, but because reality says so. </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Political
leaders will hardly admit as much but, on the other hand, facing reality
usually leads to solutions that may not be ideal but are still better in
relative terms. The main issue under the circumstances would be a realistic
differentiation of values that are desirable in a modern society. Traditional
attitudes formed by religion, their secular ideological counterparts, and
temporary fashions are not necessarily the rational arbiters of contributive
aspects within a population. Haphazard allocations of finite resources
exacerbate the potential failures in a system exposed to the vagaries of
nature.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In a general sense the welfare safety net
established in the West provides unemployment benefits to those out of work.
Regardless of the reasons for the predicament (to precisely identify those
would require additional resources anyway) the unemployed are not completely
deprived of resources. However, there is a variety of causes for being
essentially unemployable, and even a relatively generous welfare system such as
Australia’s does not address the incidence of poverty should such a condition eventuate
beyond the scope of a particular individual. Although resources would be needed
for the system to become fairer, when considering the wider picture they should
have a higher priority than many other expenditures entertained today. As it
is, the innate potential of that demographic is lost to society.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In any
case, whatever path a society takes, the laws of physics will always have the
last word.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-71177559669109982272012-12-06T10:40:00.001+10:002013-01-11T13:03:01.534+10:00Next thing you know, they'll invent the screwdriver<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJKqLVL19Q42du3mCR1V6T25F3XGUrC2-Ylc3H477yZ33FEeJCnWY5IAaSTXOX2C-5zLOw9tgouMJ7IqAL3YgmHbPRb5OAmY0NizxNQILGbRp8WT3OXkPn8hSzbpvwL58-2daSwMehoxo/s1600/LatScrewdriver.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="noborder" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJKqLVL19Q42du3mCR1V6T25F3XGUrC2-Ylc3H477yZ33FEeJCnWY5IAaSTXOX2C-5zLOw9tgouMJ7IqAL3YgmHbPRb5OAmY0NizxNQILGbRp8WT3OXkPn8hSzbpvwL58-2daSwMehoxo/s320/LatScrewdriver.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This is
a screwdriver.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Insert
the blade into the screw as hinted in the picture, turn the screw 90 degrees,
remove the blade, go back to the original position, turn the tool so you can
use the other blade, reinsert it, another 90 degree turn of the screw, and so
on. A screw can be tightened or removed in no time. In narrow and tight spaces
that's the only tool which works. By the way, the blade is straight (not
tapered), which means no extra force is needed to keep the thing engaged as you
turn.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I found
this tool thirty years ago in Hong Kong when I visited it with the <a href="http://www.otoom.net/osmf/index.php?topic=3.0" target="_blank">yacht</a>.
On board it had a special place and no-one could use it without my personal
permission; that's how important it was. Since then, right up to today, I
haven't found anyone in Australia who immediately identified it for what it is,
let alone had used it. I just checked the internet: hardware stores here, in
the UK and the US offer all kinds of screwdrivers but not this one. It's not a
comprehensive analysis, but still.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Back in
1981 some department stores in Australia and some stores that sold watches
offered the first couple of versions of the emerging digital variety; simple
things, just telling the time. That same year there was a street in Mumbai
where sellers sat at dozens of tables selling digital watches by the hundreds,
if not thousands. They had the functions we have come to expect.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I
remembered those times when the <a href="http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2012/12/05/272768.htm" target="_blank">2012 conference on climate change</a> went
through its paces in Doha. As usual the representatives of governments argued
about who should do what. The outcome was not encouraging. Given that the
latest update on climate change promises a <a href="http://climatechange.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/Turn_Down_the_Heat_Executive_Summary_English.pdf" target="_blank">2C rise in global temperature</a>
over the next twenty or thirty years as just about inevitable, for some people
thoughts might turn to panic.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">But
then I thought about that screwdriver and those watches. While the rest of the
world - well, certainly the developed world - had its established stores and
advertising catalogues and consumers who thought they had it all, there were
places where you could get things the rest of the world had not even heard of.
That's enterprise at street level.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Some
big items: while they were arguing in Doha, China has the <a href="http://www.rechargenews.com/energy/wind/article327888.ece" target="_blank">largest contingent of wind generators in the world</a>. Germany is one of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Germany" target="_blank">world’s top solar cell installers</a>. At a recent energy conference in Melbourne about <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/china-shines-brightly-in-energy-field-20121014-27kw5.html" target="_blank">80% of renewable energy products</a> were from China. </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">But
there is also the everyday detail, the things that tell about the atmosphere
besides the official brochures. Business at any time of the day, bustling night
markets, a population that generally works in step with each other, school
children who sit still in class and who actually have to prove they are ready
to advance to the next year, a cultural memory anchored in centuries and millennia,
and entertainment which would make our finger-waggers choke on their digits.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I
wonder what her audience made of Julia Gillard's revelation last month that
Australia has recognised the importance of Asia and yes, we are going to be
<a href="http://afr.com/p/opinion/the_asian_century_gillard_tardis_OMJvp8Z6n5rOxV8GRlFFAO" target="_blank">part of it</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">There
is no reason to believe among the billions there aren't enterprising souls -
possibly as we speak - who put together something which addresses the
challenges posed by climate change. Not to stop the effects, that's the job of
governments if they ever get around to it, and mostly the battle is lost
already. Rather, to create devices and habits which allow us to live with it.
There is no guarantee idealists or romantics or moralists will approve, but
apart from the rather ossified West there is a world out there where people
make things happen anyway. It's the reason they got to where they are today, a
productive balance between governments who have their plans but not the means
and inclination to enforce every detail.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">And so
I still have my screwdriver printout and every so often I show it to someone -
no? never seen it? And in Queensland there is bound to be yet another marketing
campaign to sell The Sandy Beach overseas for a "family holiday" (no
smokers please!), in the schools the children boil their brains in 30+C heat
but it doesn't matter because next year they'll move to the higher class
anyway, and in parliament they sledge each other over who is a misogynist.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-80099674491099716492012-11-14T08:16:00.000+10:002013-01-11T13:02:34.823+10:00Of flowers and people: the EU and Greece<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Much
has been said about the financial disparities between the member states of the
European Union. Right now the willingness - some would call it an obsession -
of keeping Greece within the EU has resulted in setting aside another chunk of
euro billions to patch over Greece's insolvency. According to the <a href="http://euobserver.com/economic/118142" target="_blank">latest reports</a> 31.5 billion euros are waiting to go to Greece which the nation
needs to pay its debts. “We need to find creative solutions,” <a href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/1236840/1/.html" target="_blank">AustrianFinance Minister Maria Fekter</a><a href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/1236840/1/.html" target="_blank"> said</a>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">One
could phrase the situation as follows.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Someone
is so much in debt that he can't even pay the instalments. So he gets more
money with further conditions attached. Why yet another loan should suddenly
solve the problem is anyone's guess. </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">So, for
the lender the money paid to the borrower is now lost to the account of the
former (where it could have done more work), instead it is in the coffers of
the latter where it causes things to get worse. The idea is of course that
eventually all these sums get repaid, but that is not happening.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">What if
the additional sum is not paid in full, but minus a percentage which is used to
earn interest for the lender (that side of the economy works, remember), the
interest thus earned is diverted to the borrower who needs it. The conditions
there are less onerous, and the total loan is not growing as it otherwise
would. The result - less turmoil on the borrower's side, less angst for the
lender, and in overall terms the money has never left the entire bloc anyway.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">What of
those flowers? Let's say there is a sick flower bed; no amount of watering and
fertiliser help. One option is to grow the same flowers somewhere else where
they are healthy and introduce some plants gradually into the sick group to
slowly take over. In essence the approach is the same.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Perhaps the time has come to be more creative after all.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-59207967643930027062012-11-07T11:57:00.006+10:002013-01-11T13:02:04.057+10:00Those tricky (re)interpretations!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Recently
two articles of mine were rejected because their reviewers had certain issues
with them. What those are and my responses are described in detail on my
website (<a href="http://www.otoom.net/myhome.htm" target="_blank">My Home</a>, <a href="http://www.otoom.net/theisaa.htm" target="_blank">The ISAA...</a>).</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">On a
more technical level (in terms of the Otoom mind model) however there are
issues that go beyond someone's personal or political opinion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A
preconceived notion represents an already established cognitive template about
what is to follow. Even if subsequent paragraphs explain more their mind is
already set; so much so that further statements are not accepted because it is
not what has been expected. The <a href="http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2001-12/1008868630.Ns.r.html" target="_blank">problem</a> has been recognised in Neuroscience
for some time now. Norretranders' "The User Illusion" [1] provides
many interesting results from experiments along those lines.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Should
the reader - or reviewer in this case - get any further response to a criticism
this is constructed as further proof that the criticism has been correct all
along. If not responded to (and so this kind of information spreads
unchallenged) the preconceived perspective becomes the norm, further
strengthening the framework (the template) from which further a priori
perspectives and starting points are created.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Anything
now not in line with that ambience (the results create indeed an entire
ambience) are seen as beyond the standard and hence fair game for attack. This
happens within general society and also within groups who tend to isolate
themselves from the rest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">If a
group has a large enough membership or their perspectives cover many areas,
overlaps with other groups are possible through their respective intersections,
although whether the entire ambience of a group can be altered via such links
would depend on the conceptual scope of the latter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Which
raises certain questions: to what extent is the interplay between a group's
composition, its parts, their mutual influence on each other, and the potential
of any of them to be an agent for change, being realised? Are some groups more
susceptible than others, and so which types make up a certain society at any
given time, and if the overall conditions change would the groups change as
well?</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In
other words, do the groups operating within a society determine the
effectiveness of its environment, or is it the other way around? More likely it
would be a combination of the two, which of course complicates the entire
scenario to a large degree. This is an example of how the complexity of such an
observation and its analysis can explode in a very short time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As for
the mix of the two possibilities, since we are dealing with complex dynamic
systems, it would be virtually impossible to decide for one or the other,
especially since by the time an observation yields a result those
interdependencies have already come into play. At that point to talk about any particular
directional cause-and-effect relationship is meaningless.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Does
that mean any further analysis is therefore useless? Actually no, because although
the initial direction is indefinable, since the dynamics operate in any case any
decision at a given moment will have an effect provided it is followed by some
action that involves the existing dynamics; that is to say, if the action occurs
within its conceptual space.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In
other words, it doesn't matter what the action at that moment produces (ie, a
cause-and-effect relationship in this or that direction), some result will be
produced. The validity of that result does not depend on the identification of
the previous direction but depends on the efficacy of the action itself.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">When
information has passed back and forth between two entities (individuals, groups
at any scale) and a third party injects some further information, then at that
point the salient aspect is the affinity of the latter with the existing
context.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It
doesn't matter how that context was formed, its precise history is neither here
nor there. If there is an affinity between the new information and the context,
new connections will form between the two. The dynamic continues to evolve.
This is the reason new concepts - sometimes called memes - form with their
exact source often remaining unclear. </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Nevertheless,
in practice accusations and remonstrations can ensue, but both sides are
justified in arguing they are not the guilty party. In the immediate sense they
are correct, but we are dealing with a type of system in which our
understanding of exactitude does not hold - it's the nature of complex, dynamic
systems.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">All
this is another manifestation of progression lock (the ongoing development of a
scenario based on what happened previously), and the only way in which such a
situation can be resolved - if this is the right word - is by either having an
outside force capable of unseating a sufficient number of participating elements,
or the system exhausts its reserves on its own (ie, those entities become
ineffective). Functionally speaking both outcomes are the same.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A
scenario where all parties are arguing to the hilt, and every accusation only
making things worse despite no-one really desiring that turn of events, and
above all everyone being equally responsible but no-one ever admitting to it
... does this sound familiar?</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Reference:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">1. T.
Norretranders, The User Illusion, Penguin Books, New York, 1998.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-42346019571319237952012-10-03T12:35:00.001+10:002012-10-15T09:15:20.923+10:00Geert Wilders: friend or foe?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Politics
is so confusing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Australia’s
Minister for </span>Immigration<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">
Chris Bowen seems not to intervene in <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/bowens-gobsmacking-gall-on-wilders-visa-20121002-26wm6.html#poll" target="_blank">issuing a visa for Dutch politician GeertWilders</a>. After delaying the decision since August (normally a visa application
for Dutch citizens is processed within three days) he appears to allow Mr
Wilders to enter the country after all. Mr Bowen described Wilders as a “far
right politician”, an “extremist”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">What
does “far right” mean?</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Well, he
gave a <a href="http://www.geertwilders.nl/index.php/component/content/article/87-news/1795-speech-geert-wilders-at-the-western-conservative-summit-denver-30-june-2012" target="_blank">speech at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver</a>. That’s
right-wing, I guess.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">He also
criticised the European Union for telling the Dutch to finance cash-strapped
nations such as Greece and Spain during a <a href="http://www.geertwilders.nl/index.php/in-english-mainmenu-98/in-the-press-mainmenu-101/77-in-the-press/1798-a-referendum-on-the-eu-in-the-netherlands-" target="_blank">recent election campaign video</a>. That
is reminiscent of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Party_of_Austria" target="_blank">Austria’s Freedom Party (FPOe) with its own Euro-skeptic platform</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">But
wait – the FPOe has roots that go back to Nazi Germany. Geert Wilders’ Freedom
Party on the other hand is against Islam which Wilders compared to Hitler’s
totalitarianism.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">So
Austria’s FPOe is on the extreme right because it is echoing the Nazis, but
Wilders is also on the extreme right because he is against anything that
resembles a similar oppression.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">But he
doesn’t like the EU because it is pouring money into failing economies, does
he? Yet the Federal Constitutional Court in Germany is now <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20110705-europe-germany-euro-legal-bailouts-court-greece-ireland-portugal-economy-debt" target="_blank">hearing legal challenges against the country’s role in recent bailouts</a>, and that doesn’t
seem to be a right-wing plot. What is at issue there sounds rather close to
what Wilders expressed in an <a href="http://www.geertwilders.nl/index.php/in-english-mainmenu-98/in-the-press-mainmenu-101/77-in-the-press/1801-geert-wilders-an-open-letter-to-cecilia-malmstroem" target="_blank">open letter to EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Greece’s
socialists for that matter don’t like the <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/markets/greek-pm-antonis-samaras-desperate-to-seal-the-deal/story-fn7j1dyq-1226485735335" target="_blank">EU’s austerity measures either</a>, in
Spain the Socialist Party lost votes because of the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/next-up-spains-socialists-to-pay-price-for-debt-crisis-20111118-1nnen.html" target="_blank">country’s involvement in the Iraq war</a> and the <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100118766/as-spain-rejects-socialism-only-three-per-cent-of-eu-citizens-now-have-left-wing-governments/" target="_blank">election win of the conservatives there</a> means Spain
is now more firmly nestled within the EU.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Going
through the speeches by Geert Wilders on his <a href="http://www.geertwilders.nl/" target="_blank">Weblog</a> one gets the impression
he is for free speech and the general liberalism Dutch society is renowned for.
But of course, he is from the extreme right.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">It does
seem the label ‘right-wing’ has moved away from the historic-political
background it used to be associated with to a generic term for simply ‘bad’. A
description that relied on ascertainable detail has been replaced by context and
becomes defined, if that is the right word, by the ambiguous moment of this or
that experience. In other words, we are talking about <a href="http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/postmodernism/modules/introduction.html" target="_blank">post-modernism</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">‘Right-wing’
then is a derogatory tag, nothing more.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Comparing
contemporary Dutch law – which Mr Wilders supports - with its Islamic counterpart
– which he doesn’t - becomes especially poignant when considering the ongoing
attempts at abolishing the death penalty around the world. While Islamic
countries differ in its application, capital punishment continues to exist in
all Islamic jurisdictions and is strongly defended, as William Schabas explains
in his article “<a href="http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1379&context=wmborj&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com.au%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Ddeath%2520penalty%2520in%2520islam%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D7%26cad%3Drja%26sqi%3D2%26ved%3D0CEkQFjAG%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fscholarship.law.wm.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1379%2526context%253Dwmborj%26ei%3Dr5drUPbpG4b2mAWa5YDQBw%26usg%3DAFQjCNEe0yZLOU0ktY2wT16YXKIwXRiz4Q#search=%22death%20penalty%20islam%22" target="_blank">Islam and the Death Penalty</a>”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">All this
leads to an intriguing question: could it be that the venom directed against
Geert Wilders by politicians in countries like Australia points to a certain
subliminal animosity held by the latter towards a liberalism which includes gay
marriage, nude bathing, drug laws, euthanasia etc, all of which are not
condoned by them but many are loath to discuss openly? </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Could it be that they favour Islam with its rigid conservatism because
it allows them to condemn such freedoms by proxy?</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-18016365744713674172012-09-20T10:58:00.002+10:002012-10-03T12:39:15.625+10:00Box politics<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Party
politics always have been a mixture of national interests and ideological
perception.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">It
matters however whether an ideology emerges under the banner of national
interests or whether national interests become fashioned in accordance with
ideology. Over the last few decades the latter has overtaken the former.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Under
the perspective of society as a complex dynamic system the phenomenon stems
from the clustering of affinity relationships within a nation leading to the formation
of subsystems representing such clusters until they have become entities in
their own right, and which from then on continue in a self-serving manner. The
result is a party that places its ideology ahead of the overall national
interest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">In the
US </span><a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec12/edwards_08-21.html" target="_blank">former congressman Mickey Edwards discussed that development</a> in
his book “The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats
Into Americans”. In his interview on PBS Newshour he said, “the one thing that
George Washington, John Adams, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson all agreed on
was don't create political parties. And the parties they had in that day were
things where a few people got together on three issues, four issues, five issues,
but not like what we have today, permanent factions, Republicans, Democrats
always on opposite sides, and the founders all warned against that”.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
In Australia the situation is similar. So much so that
addressing just about any issue in terms of some suggested solution will
immediately categorise the speaker as being either left- or right-wing,
depending on which party happened to claim ownership of the idea at some stage.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
As a consequence the substance of one’s remarks becomes
tainted with a whole host of connotations derived from the particular party. A
conceptual transference takes place in which the speaker not only has to deal
with the original concept but however unwittingly is seen as being
representative of a much wider contingent and is responded to accordingly. This
does not help the debate.<br />
<br />
What follows are examples of themes, in no particular order, of which significant parts have been appropriated by political parties to varying degree and junked together under their banner instead of being allowed to form their own contexts. </div>
<ul style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<li><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Support
for private enterprise is important, but a modern society requires public utilities
so that anyone can have the opportunity to operate within that society
regardless of financial means and personal standing.</span> </li>
</ul>
<ul style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<li><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Give due
regard to individualism and personal rights, but there also is a place for
collective measures because a complex society needs the means to facilitate
interdependence among its various functionalities.</span> </li>
</ul>
<ul style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<li><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">A
handful of super athletes enjoy massive amounts of investment, yet physical dysfunction
is spreading across the entire population sometimes in epidemic proportion
because of insufficient resources for physical education.</span> </li>
</ul>
<ul style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<li><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">As a
consequence the pressure on the nation’s health system increases constantly,
but anyone who suggests people should be less lazy and irresponsible is roundly
condemned.</span> </li>
</ul>
<ul style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<li><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Spending
hundreds of millions of dollars to save a few koalas is accepted without fuss,
but at the same time the laws undermine the productivity of fruit growers (ie,
humans) because they are not permitted to act against pests which destroy their
crops.</span> </li>
</ul>
<ul style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<li><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Against
the growing competitiveness of other nations we remove one challenge after
another from children’s lives turning them into clumsy incompetents while even
punishing parents if they don’t toe the official line.</span> </li>
</ul>
<ul style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<li><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The emphasis
is on keeping up-to-date with the latest developments in any given field
(sometimes even measured in monthly intervals), yet we are supposed to stand in
awe before indigenous demographics whose culture had not changed over tens of
thousands of years.</span> </li>
</ul>
<ul style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<li><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">We give
lip-service to common standards since every society needs a certain homogeneity
in order to function, while at the same time celebrating multiculturalism for
making life more colourful and not considering that life is more colourful precisely
because homogeneity is mitigated. Besides, </span>cultures in exile invariably
stagnate and so become a caricature of their live counterparts in the home
country; the result is a society of fossils. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Asylum seekers should be processed properly and not be
palmed off to another jurisdiction, but consideration should also be given to
the quality of potential newcomers because it needs a viable population to
create the standards where assistance is affordable in the first place.</span> </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Follow the parliamentary debates and it becomes obvious that
any one of the above will be voiced by one or the other political party but to
the exclusion of so much of the rest. In the current political climate is has
become practically impossible to pursue a set of policies which are
comprehensive in terms of a reasoned approach; choose one party for one idea
but forego the other.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">No wonder the electorate is becoming more and more
disillusioned with its representatives.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-38529733069239688422012-09-14T00:21:00.000+10:002012-09-14T00:21:20.424+10:00The ESM as a function of Chaos<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The
European Stability Mechanism has been given the green light from a legal
perspective and the markets are mostly relieved. <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/09/13/uk-germany-court-reaction-idUKBRE88C0IQ20120913" target="_blank">Yet many see also danger</a>.
Since the ESM is part of the wider European economy and is therefore subject to
the principles inherent in complex, dynamic systems, it is possible to examine
its status in terms of Chaos, the technical term for this kind of environment,
and so identify the challenge it faces.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">A
large-scale complex and dynamic system relies on the interdependency of its
functional elements, which is another way of saying that those subsystems must
be able to productively communicate with each other in order to maintain the
feedback mechanism the system relies on. The larger the system, the greater the
probability that the necessary synchronisation cannot be sustained because one
or some of the elements enter a state not in congruence with the rest. </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">There
are essentially two ways in which the possibility for incongruence can be
checked.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Either
there exists a sufficiently strong authority which ensures that any subsystem
adheres to its performance envelope and so prevents incongruent states from
emerging, or the entire system is homogenous enough so that its parts
autonomously adhere to the overall standard and/or theme.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The
foregoing has been expressed generically on purpose to emphasise the
universality of these principles.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">As far
as the EU is concerned, the ESM represents an entity that is designed to allow
for and administer financial subsystems that failed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">In
terms of complex systems we have Europe's financial framework (at that scale a
subsystem in itself compared to the EU), containing further subsystems
representing their particular euro-zone counterparts. Since the ESM is supposed
to come into effect in case of failure (some economies have indeed already
failed to live up to their intended designs), the mutual congruence is not
given to begin with. Furthermore, the mechanism is meant to provide a
functional envelope that is capable of overcoming discrepancies in its host
system and correct them - and all this while still ensuring the internal
integrity of each subsystem in question. That is the challenge.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Although
there are many details - particularly in the current context - that have been
omitted here, they are of a content-related nature. In other words, they are
details relating to specific banks and their customers, their type of
involvement in their own economies and the exposure to the outside, the types
of businesses with their own performances and the exact components that make up
a failure. Nevertheless, in terms of principle behaviour of and within complex
dynamic systems the scenario runs along the lines described.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">In the
<a href="http://www.otoom.net/thesocialeurope2006.zip" target="_blank">essay on Europe</a>, written in 2006, the overall situation has been outlined
with certain problems listed as potential developments inherent in such a
system. As the ensuing years have shown, some of them did eventuate.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">The
present situation is once again a particular state of affairs, a phase state of
the self-same system, which contains the potential for certain outcomes. In
technical terms they can be seen as latent states, that is states for which the
preconditions exist but which have not achieved a sufficient degree of import
and/or bias for them to influence their surrounds.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Should
that happen, that particular subsystem will have entered a new state and as
such will change its host to some extent.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">As far
as governments are concerned, and its administrative derivatives such as the
boards of banks, the idea still persists that an economy is essentially a form
of some mechanical apparatus where an adjustment here and some input there have
predictable consequences.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Unfortunately,
quite the opposite is true. Economies are chaotic systems, they progress along
their timelines via affinity relationships, the clustering and/or dispersal of
functional modules, and pattern-seeking phase states subject to the occasional
bifurcation or break point. </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">Since
such dynamics do not lend themselves to budget forecasts, political speeches,
or investment newsletters, this part of reality gets shunted out of our
consciousness. The result, failed policies, constant political arguments and
confusing debates, social unrest even, remains an ongoing fare of nations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">No
wonder economist Steve Keen calls his field the "naked emperor of the
social sciences"*), and again not surprisingly, only few have the courage
to agree with him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">*)
Steve Keen, <i>Debunking Economics, the naked emperor of the social sciences</i>, Zed
Books, London, 2004.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-61112002568657633642012-08-28T12:15:00.003+10:002012-08-28T12:23:29.509+10:00Man vs God<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";">At the
beginning of this month a court in Cologne, Germany, ruled that to <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/us-jews-slam-german-circumcision-ruling/story-e6frf7k6-1226418680994" target="_blank">circumcise young boys is against the law</a>. The “</span>fundamental right of the child
to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents” it said. In
this case the boy was a four-year-old Muslim.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
Since the circumcision of boys is practised under Judaism
as well, the court’s decision sparked outrage among the Jewish community, even
beyond Germany’s borders. <a href="http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/rituelle-beschneidung-beschneidungsdebatte-empoert-israel-11867158.html" target="_blank">Israel’s president Peres wrote to his German counterpart</a> to support the right to ritual circumcision.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
The way the protests are running is interesting in
itself, but for now let us consider the issue under Otoom.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
Human activity systems are essentially just that –
systems. A nation constitutes a system, so does religion, so does an economy, a
political party, and so on. Furthermore, they all contain sub-and sub-subsystems
right down to the individual and together they form a whole at whatever scale
happens to be under focus.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
Systems
also possess an identity, and since their constituent parts interact with each
other the performance of any one of them has consequences for the whole.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
How a system
such as a nation identifies itself is in the end up to that society. Whatever
its perspective (an aggregate of all its subsystems), it influences the overall
outcome and by doing so establishes the degree of sustainability in the long
term.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
Here we
have a large-scale system (Germany), containing another system (Judaism), and
the question is, what happens when one law (a subsystem) is in opposition to
another. What are the consequences?</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
If a
society has decided that there are fundamental principles around which it
turns, and if these principles have been arrived at by considering the
untenability of changing the body of someone who is incapable of giving
consent, then such a decision is based on a rationale which derives its
validity from a conscious process of examining the possibilities inherent in
not starting from such a base.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
In
other words, should some idea (or fashion, or custom, or ideology) suggest a
transgression of the fundamental principle, the principle itself needs to be
re-examined under the same auspices of rational consideration. This constitutes
the ultimate protection against a lack of reason.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
A
religion functions under a different framework. The particular interpretation
of what ‘god’ means, what is assumed to be that god’s law, and how the members
of this system are supposed to act are immutable once the religion has
established itself. That moment could have occurred 400 years ago, it could
have occurred 4000 years ago. In any case, the identity is maintained because
it is held to be immutable.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
If a
society contains members of a religion, then the hierarchy of principle rules
has to be decided upon. What comes first, the principles of the society (let’s
label them ‘S’) or the principles of the religion (‘R’)?</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
If S
comes before R, then any demand from R is subjected to an examination based on
S. If S is based on reason, R will be allowed or rejected dependent on what S
has to offer.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
Suppose
R is held to be above S, and suppose further that it is claimed R conducts
itself with due consideration given to the welfare of its subjects, therefore S
has no need or indeed any right to interfere.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
If S is
above R, the opportunity, no, the guarantee exists that any problematic
consequences are examined under due process (see above). But if R comes before
S, what guarantee exists now? The consequences are not analysed under rational auspices
but within the framework of a subjective interpretation of what is right and
what is wrong. The outcomes will be a result of someone’s belief that they are
right and so many others are wrong and the process stops there.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
Therefore,
however well-meant a decision may be, there is no assurance its consequences
will reflect the current standard which the members of the entire system are
capable of. R controls S, regardless what society wants.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
Hence S
must always be higher than R.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
Chief
Rabbi Meir Lau from Tel Aviv said that if Germany does not change the ruling, there
is no reason for Jews to be there; “the Jews (in Germany) will realise this is
not the place where they belong”.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
He is
right. If Jews identify themselves according to principles each one of which is
held immutable, then a society where rational considerations apply cannot be
their home. Of course, Jews are able to identify themselves without the orders
from a rabbi; they could well decide to align themselves with a modern state
where human rights are part of the ongoing debate.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
Could
they still manage to call themselves Jews?</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br />
That is
not for me to decide.</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-91048966904887461332012-07-18T11:28:00.003+10:002012-07-18T11:37:00.426+10:00Feedback in complex, dynamic systems<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">One essential feature of complex, dynamic systems is feedback and the mind is no exception, including the higher scale of society.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">These systems contain functional elements that produce output to their environment, the environment is modified to some extent, and the resultant conditions impact on the system in turn, which then produces some output once again that feeds into the surrounds, and so on and so on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">To what extent does or can the feedback alter the system?</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Since a complex system is complex no matter how intelligent its members are (even an ant hill is a complex system) the eventual result depends on the members to process the information. There may be exceptional members, but, if they are part of the feedback, the question revolves around the degree to which they are understood by the rest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Their contribution may not be understood at all or it could be misunderstood. In either case it may not be acted upon out of fear of the unknown. Assuming a certain developmental curve towards increasing complexity, there is a time lag between what is not taken up and what is taking part in the feedback loop in any case.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">If the latter is sufficient to sustain the exceptional contributors, the system will benefit from them because when the rest finally do catch up those contributors are still around. A similar effect is gained through the welfare system in those countries which can afford it. The exceptional contributors don’t survive because society values their input, they survive because they are kept alive anyway.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">At the same time however the general wealth of the society making this possible needs to come from somewhere and in a competitive world a nation needs a sufficient degree of intelligence to stay ahead – which means it needs to be able to productively absorb the feedback and the more esoteric contributions (for want of a better word) may not be necessary to maintain the relative advantage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And here is the rub: anything that gets assimilated and thus is enhancing the system’s validity has therefore a considerable impact; but likewise, a negative addition will have a destructive influence in the longer term.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Since feedback is self-defining, once a downward path has been embarked upon it becomes harder and harder to compensate for – the feedback itself will have become diminished.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A precarious phase has been entered from which it becomes impossible to recover. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Civilisations that have fallen followed that pattern. One of the most detailed descriptions of such a scenario is Edward Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The gradual decrease of the complexity inherent in the information that gets passed around creates constantly diminishing responses which in turn generate poorer material for the feedback loop. Not only has the overall standard deteriorated, a relatively higher contribution has a greater chance of meeting opposition and the degree of the latter’s intensity becomes a measure of the conceptual distance between the exception and the norm. The result is a accelerating deterioration of the overall mindset.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A reversal is unlikely unless the prevalent feedback mechanism is unseated through the interference by a sufficiently powerful authority. Since this type of interference requires a structural framework to perform in the first place, ordinary dynamics in terms of information flow will have been affected too – the system has changed in any case.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Examples from the intellectual realm would be inventions that were dismissed because the general ambience had no room for them. They can also be found in politics, although here the sections within a party must be considered as they could play the part of the higher authority. A similar role can be played by polls which can create an affinity with certain sections of a party who could feel empowered by them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Examples can also be found in the biological sphere in general where the complex dynamic framework is represented by an eco-system and its members are the flora and fauna. In this case the information flow does not consist of cognitive data but of the resources such as food which must be attained and needs dispersal in order to proliferate, and which can improve or deteriorate under certain conditions. Abrupt changes can come from climate (eg, floods or drought), a sudden change in the balance of plants or animals (eg, through disease), or the availability of food in general which may support one life form over another, and that in turn influences the eco-system from then on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Furthermore, steadily worsening conditions are harder to turn around because once the previous equilibrium has been demolished a certain re-adjustment process has set in which actually mitigates against a reversal. The system as a whole has become inherently unstable; at that point anything can happen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The question is, can such a state be regarded as a bifurcation under the terms of chaos? After all, it is not a change from one particular pattern to another; there is no other pattern.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Is this therefore an ‘extended’ bifurcation, a dynamic space which is pattern-less, has no discernible hierarchical order of any kind, and therefore has no ‘type’? </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The next question is, for how long can such a state persist?</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The usual determinants of impact, scope and size of its constituent elements are no longer applicable, nor can anything be gleaned from observing the in- or output. For that kind of analysis to be useful there has to be a pattern, yet this is exactly what is missing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Perhaps this is one situation that most closely resembles what is commonly understood by ‘chaos’, a featureless, dynamic state. Just like the brain at its inception.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This also offers an answer to the previous question. The reason the brain can change from its featureless state to a more organised system is through constantly repeated input such as parents provide for their child. Therefore the one path out of that dilemma is constancy. Constancy in terms of input, overall conditions, and the availability of resources the system needs to sustain itself. Remove any one of them and the system cannot re-form, or form altogether in the case of the infant’s brain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">In principle the nature of that constancy does not matter except in the sense of how the system is expected to perform eventually. For example, abandoned children cannot fully attain their ‘humanness’ if left outside human society for too long, where ‘too long’ refers to the time spent laying down the alien patterns. After a time the already formed internal structures cannot be undone; a phenomenon characteristic of progression lock (the constraint imposed on new developments by already established patterns).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Considerations about feedback loops, continuing to bifurcations, and then on to instability and progression locks are part of complex dynamic systems such as the mind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The fact that they can be entertained at all demonstrates the interdependency within these systems.</span><br />
</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-20691747375292438422011-01-02T11:06:00.001+10:002013-01-14T17:04:24.515+10:00Latency and memory<div class="MsoPlainText">
In the previous two posts (<a href="http://otoomblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/secrets-of-latency.html">The secrets of latency</a> and <a href="http://otoomblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-type-of-analysis.html">A new type of analysis</a>) I discussed the issues surrounding the unrealised potential of dynamic clusters in a complex system such as the mind and what happens when the potential is being triggered by some input.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It remains tying them all together.<o:p></o:p></div>
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If the latent contents of some domain (ie, a set of clusters related through their affinities with each other) get triggered by subsequent input, it matters whether the domain was representative of some general content or of an abstraction (that is the intersection of affinitive subdomains - see previous posts). <o:p></o:p></div>
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In the latter case, if we assume a 1st level abstraction, the number of possible triggers that are able to realise the latency is higher than in the case of content-only domains, for the simple reason that an abstract possesses greater relevance to some content than a content itself since it covers more than one set of subdomains. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Since there are more possible triggers, the latency will be realised earlier; in other words, it will be shorter lived. Yet 'latency' means the capacity for storage (ie, memory), so a shorter-lived latency means less storage capacity in relation to content. Similarly, less abstract domains mean less triggering towards further abstractions, the only realisable representative type being one of content. Because abstractive representations need more neurons, without the physical structures within the brain (number of neurons, connectivity, neurotransmitters, etc) having the chance to grow, less opportunity for further abstractions and their effects exists.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In evolutionary terms the brain needed the 'right' DNA to develop further, and when that was realised (ie, the DNA's potential having been realised) abstractions could start playing their role. In some cases they did, in others less so or not at all. <o:p></o:p></div>
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At the human level the evolution of abstractive processes can be observed in societies, one manifestation being philosophy. Comparing such texts from the past to the present, the capacity to articulate an issue in an ever higher abstract form as we progress through the ages becomes obvious (see the entire Part I of the <a href="http://www.otoom.net/synopsis.htm" target="_blank">"On the origin of Mind"</a>). <o:p></o:p></div>
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In the case of DNA a comparable differentiation across latencies can be observed when we consider the development of organisms from a common base on the one hand and their various truncations over the millennia on the other (why did microbes stop evolving and not other organisms, what stopped insects, amphibians, mammals, etc etc while others were able to pass them by).<o:p></o:p></div>
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What happens when latencies become realised? Their underlying content does not disappear, rather they become modified due to their affinitive nature with some input. When they become modified they continue to possess their latent potential for triggering, but due to the modification the sets of potentially triggering input will have changed to some extent (how much depends on the degree of modification). Therefore the sets of triggers can and do change their nature in terms of the ability to act as triggers, which means that the domains in question alter what they represent in content. A representative-content drift takes place, which ensures that the resultant domain and its necessary triggers change too. <o:p></o:p></div>
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On a higher level of observation by us humans the phenomenon is articulated as 'false memory syndrome' if focused on in the context of memory recall (see chapter 15, "On the origin of Mind"). If the focus is not on memory per se any discrepancy between recall and reality may not be recognised at all. Unless specifically looked for the shift in contextual placement of some thought and/or concept is an inevitable consequence of ongoing input, especially when it comes to language. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The unceasing ambiguity surrounding our perceptions and their source within reality is the downside of a neural system that thinks. The very nature of conscious thought prevents it from being objectively processed at a distance from the 'I'. For the most part we do not know the true origins of our ideas, and yet we convince ourselves we are in control.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-73099354382726805572010-12-05T08:09:00.000+10:002010-12-05T08:10:02.902+10:00A new type of analysis<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">The familiar form of analysis relies on content. That is to say, an event and/or an object is observed, its details are noted, comparisons are employed, and a conclusion based on identified relationships is reached. That type of analysis is essentially content-based. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">What if there was another form, one derived from a similar approach but now focusing on functionality, the type of behaviour and/or characteristics rather than the behaviour itself?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">In the context of cognitive dynamics the use of functionality would be particularly productive since it is virtually impossible to observe every thought and idea - never mind their details. Let's examine what this means.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Complex, dynamic systems (and the mind is one example par excellence) have gained those adjectives because their sub- and sub-subsystems etc are multifaceted and in constant flux in terms of their mutual relationships and their degree of significance to the wider system. For the current purpose we label their subsystems and so on thought structures (TSs) because they represent the phenomena produced by the neuronal activities which at a higher level of interpretation we perceive as thoughts. Clusters of such activities form thought patterns, the basis for what we can label concepts, derived from a pattern of thoughts. On a lower level of the conceptual scale concepts are derived from functional domains, defined by the affinities among their processes.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Hence complexity is a summary descriptor of the extent to which the multifacetedness, its interdependencies, and its cognitive manifestations have been allowed to develop. The term can be applied to the entire system of mind or to any one of its parts, where differences in degree can and do occur. For example, the present text is the result of relatively high-complexity cognitive dynamics, but ask me about cricket and I wouldn't have a clue.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">The nature of complexity is such that any one of its manifestations can grow further from the general input because the contributing TSs' variance assures that most - if not all - can process some of the input. The extent of the development depends on the quality of input, the mutual relatedness of the TSs, and their inherent latency (see previous post) - all of which are describable in terms of their specific functionality, rather than content.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Let us now concentrate on the relationship between input (in this case the communicated result of somebody else's TSs) and its effect on the side of the recipient and the TSs there.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">The source of the input may well consider it to be homogenous, but to the set of TSs in the recipient with their respective domains the input represents a multitude of sub-contexts. Yet if there is intent behind the source's output (ie, its TSs form an entire pattern) then the recipient's expectations regarding its effect may well be misplaced, although any TSs on the recipient's side would not possess the wider context to recognise this.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Similarly, if there are separate articulations coming from the respective target TSs then these articulations will reflect the expectations or confirmations resulting from their individual processes. This can be scaled up: substitute the TSs with humans and the patterns with groups of people and the degree of complexity rises further. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">The same principles apply, but now the probability of variance among the domains has risen. Now there are TSs within the TSs, and domains can and do overlap. Whether the overlaps are recognised as such is another question, leading to the misunderstandings referred to earlier, although once again they are not necessarily apparent to their source. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Such misunderstandings can lead to unwanted transfers, where content representative of a relatively higher abstraction level can be directed to a domain at a lower level (for abstractions see previous post). Given the propensity for affinities between abstraction levels in any case there is a considerable chance the resultant TSs will be incongruent (for example, try explaining the concepts of higher ethics to a young child when it has done something wrong). Since the context in relation to the source is now dispersed across the target domains a re-tracing of how abstraction levels formed for the purpose of clarification is made that much more difficult.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Nevertheless, it is possible to establish the relational structures of the TSs, including their respective abstraction levels and their mutual differences. While not enabling a source -> target analysis they nevertheless provide a unique snapshot of the TSs' configuration at the time. Therefore they represent a unique 'fingerprint' of a person's and/or a group's or indeed a society's conceptual organisation. Still, it is only a snapshot. Any subsequent input (either from the outside of from among the subdomains) will modify the general structure.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Given the transient nature of the resultant framework, is a comparison between two such frameworks possible?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Since the precise source -> target relationships cannot be identified, it is impossible to trace previously established relationships in order to find the newer ones. On the other hand, although we don't have recourse to a time stamp, we do have affinity relationships and their abstraction levels, and they can be identified. Because both phenomena are in a state of constant flux they are therefore subject to the constraints of time-related dispersal across their domains. That is to say, if we compare the structures of sub-domains and observe their linkages, those that are dispersed to a higher degree (ie, had more time to create the linkages) will most likely be those that had occurred before the less dispersed ones. Setting a cut-off point along those lines for both of the sets (comparing set 1 with set 2) leads us to a useful normalisation. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">This approach cannot be regarded as failsafe, since in the end we do not know to what extent each TS could have been able to relate to any other structure. Still, they give us a general picture of the results of the cognitive dynamics in existence and any marginal errors can be tested for by re-setting the cut-off points (while not telling us anything more about their history it allows us to disregard the more compact structures in favour of those that did form a more comprehensive network). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">The question arises: can such an analysis be done via a simulation (eg, a version of the OtoomCM), sufficiently scaled-up to permit comparable input to be processed. Part of the answer lies in the definition of 'comparable'. No doubt an exact replica of the real set is impossible for obvious reasons. Whether a pared-down model will be informative and to what degree can only be ascertained through trials, using real-world data. Yet whatever the ultimate outcome, even simpler versions of the real should reveal cognitive imprints that tell us something about their origins. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Note: the above text is rather dense. A familiarity with how the mind works would certainly aid in its understanding, but I attempted to convey - however successfully or otherwise - how the concept of functional analysis can be applied to characterise thoughts, concepts, individuals, demographics and societies.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-5108121022639471782010-11-13T06:31:00.001+10:002013-01-14T16:53:07.530+10:00The secrets of latency<div class="MsoPlainText">
One of the most intriguing aspects of the system of mind is the matter of latency. It can be found in the wetware, the software simulation, indeed in nature as a whole.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In what follows I shall recapitulate via a brief summary, touch upon the ramifications and present some examples to show how useful an understanding of the issue would be.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Let's use the <a href="http://www.otoom.net/otoomcmprogram.htm" target="_blank">OtoomCM</a> (a computer program that simulates cognitive dynamics) to see what happens. An input I1 is presented to the program, processed by the system and provides some output O1. Any output is treated in a formal manner which causes coloured discs to appear on the screen which in turn get blurred to make them look like coloured patches. The same formality is applied every time so that each end result is unique and can be compared with any other (see the <a href="http://www.otoom.net/otoomcmprogram.htm" target="_blank">web page</a> for more detail).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Next a second input I2 is presented and we get its output O2, now different from O1, that is one or several of the patches (not all) have changed shape as well as their colour.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We take a third input I3. In most cases this will merely result in a repetition of the above, but some I3s generate an output O3 such that some particular patch has regained the qualities achieved through the initial input I1. The recurrence is not an exact copy of the latter, but the chances of a coincidental similarity are minimal (the manner in which the output is drawn on the screen sees to that).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Let's do the experiment again but this time we omit I2. Without I2 the output O3 is quite different from O3 in the previous experiment. Clearly, there is something about I3 which triggers the re-emergence of a certain state in a certain cluster of the matrix nodes so that the cluster has become functionally similar to what it was before.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We can say the cluster possesses a latency (ie, the non-manifested potential for entering a previous state) regarding O1 and I2 that gets triggered by a particular further input; other inputs won't have the same effect.<o:p></o:p></div>
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(Note that some patches do not change anyway, so presenting I3 without I2 would not the clusters responsible for those stable patches exhibit the latency as well? No - because no modification is not latency under the definition)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Before we go any further I need to point out that the state of each matrix node is defined through the collection of integers it holds and those integers get modified according to an algorithm which induces chaotic behaviour, turning each node into a stable, or periodic, or strange attractor (for more detail see the <a href="http://www.otoom.net/downloads.htm" target="_blank">IPSI-2005 Venice paper</a>). And yet we have latency, observable on many occasions.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Since the phenomenon exists in a specific cluster (we can tell because the patch occurs in the same location on the screen) it can be interpreted as a means of packing several layers of information within a particular domain; all it needs is for the right trigger to reveal the respective layer.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Needless to say, subsequent inputs (with and/or without the I2) cause different series of outputs, depending on whether or not there was an I2. For latency to manifest the cluster needs the right trigger, which is another way of saying that every cluster possesses latency which may or may not be triggered.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This is where it gets really interesting. We can say that ordinary inputs cause the system to come up with outputs that are a function of its cumulative states as well as its environment with its own type of inputs making the system appear ordinary in its behaviour, whereas only special inputs evoke its latent states and make the system enter an event trajectory that is now out of the ordinary.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It seems memory operates on the basis of latent cluster states among the brain's neurons being triggered by the appropriate input (for a discussion of memory see "On the origin of Mind", chapter 15). In a different context, ordinary weather relies on ordinary input to go through its common variety, but extraordinary input (eg, a combination of prolonged heat, moisture, updrafts) lead to cyclones, although the necessary functional ingredients exist throughout the air mass all the time provided by previous inputs (the causes for the temperature gradients, humidity, dew points, dust particles, etc). In another context still, dinosaurs existed on earth for a very long time, having settled in their environment in combination with all the other organisms including mammals. It took an extraordinary event to trigger the latency in the DNA structure of mammals to unfold into the complexity we find today. Note that without their respective latencies none of those extraordinary trajectories could have eventuated (ie, no memory recall, no cyclones, no humans).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Back to cognitive dynamics. An abstraction is a form of interpretation in which the principle aspects of an event and/or an object (generally termed 'system') are highlighted. For example, I can describe a pump in terms of pipes, valves and cylinder and piston, but I can abstract all this to a system consisting of a space acting as a receiver under one configuration and turning that same space into a supplier by changing the configuration. Defined in this manner I can use whatever comes in handy and, provided the functionality of the abstraction is adhered to, the resultant system will be a pump.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Cognitively speaking, an abstraction is represented by the intersection of various sets of relevant neuronal clusters; its output is the abstraction.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We can go one step further and consider the intersection of several intersections, leading to the next higher abstraction level; and so on.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For example, 'art nouveau tables' are level 1 abstractions of all the particular tables made according to that style (these particular tables could be termed level 0 abstractions); 'table' is a level 2 abstraction of 'art nouveau tables'; a 'flat surface held up by some support' is a level 3 abstraction of 'table'; 'mesa' being an example derived from a level 3 abstraction applied to terrain. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A series of outputs derived from their inputs represents the results of affinity relationships between the participating clusters, modified along their time lines by the oncoming inputs (and the affinity relationships exist within the context of chaotic systems). Affinity relationships are just that - relationships based on affinity. Therefore they occur among clusters representative of level 0 abstractions, or among clusters of a higher level. Since the creation of affinity relationships as such depends on the abilities of neurons to interact with each other and nothing more, it is - technically - possible to combine different abstraction levels with each other, but the result will be found wanting (imagine applying the criterion 'art nouveau' to a mesa).<o:p></o:p></div>
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What about latency? For a latent state to be manifest it needs a trigger, but is it feasible to have a trigger coming from a level 1 abstraction applied to a cluster representative of its level 0 counterpart? Technically yes, but what are the consequences - not only in terms of the sheer system but also in terms of the meaningfulness of the subsequent outputs as interpreted by us humans.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Remember that for latency to become manifest it needs extraordinary input. However, extraordinary input is not compatible with the ordinary inputs underpinning the entire range of clusters representative of level 0 -> n abstractions. Hence it is possible that the probability of affinities between the result of an instantiated latency and the result of ordinary states is diminished; it would be further diminished still by another manifested latency and so on - in other words, the meaningfulness of cognitive output would be sharply reduced, but there would come a point beyond which the accumulation of realised latencies has reached such a degree that meaningful affinities between them are possible once again. Within that particular context a quite different way of thinking has been achieved through the availability of extraordinary inputs, which would become less extraordinary once they have had the opportunity to establish a pattern.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At the moment the OtoomCM program cannot be run on a platform that allows for a sufficiently large-scale configuration in order to test such a scenario. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Nevertheless, this kind of investigation would reveal what it takes to literally change a person's mind - or society's for that matter. Not having to rely on ad-hoc events (our fate so far) has dramatic consequences. For that matter, unforeseen events and their effects could be mitigated, even reversed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Here is an example from biology. Until the discovery of black swans in Western Australia Europeans firmly believed swans were always white. Imagine being able to analyse the cluster of swan DNA with respect to its feathers and their pigmentation. It would become obvious whether other colours were possible, given the availability of the necessary triggers. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Despite our knowledge in chemistry we still rely on nature to show us some particularly exotic protein formations and their qualities. Knowing how to interpret the latency along the chain of biochemical protein complexity we would be able to create those substances ourselves - provided of course they are possible but if they are not we would know that too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The phenomenon of latency in complex, chaotic systems promises insights way beyond any investigation that relies on the availability of content-related instances of reality could furnish. It only needs an appropriately scaled simulation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-40293774391524083162010-09-22T07:43:00.001+10:002010-11-12T11:49:46.812+10:00In/tolerance without the ethics<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">One way or another the subject of tolerance - or the lack of it - always hovers around social and political issues. Whether it is the treatment of certain demographics, or immigration, or foreign policy in general, even if not articulated explicitly it remains the elephant in the room.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">What effect tolerance and its opposite have can be examined away from the ethical and emotional by considering what these functionalities mean in terms of human activity systems.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Our current perspective is based on affinity relationships and how they come into being. As their name implies, they represent connections made possible by the content of representative states of the system's members such that a degree of synchronicity exists. The label 'member' can refer to neurons in the mind of an individual, they can equally stand for the citizens in a society. Right now we are dealing with the latter.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Any content, imported via the senses, turns into representative states. These states are unique to a given domain (a cluster of members) and, in a very real sense, define it. Any similarity between one domain and another in terms of their respective representative states produces an affinity between the two. Since any domain with its members is an importer of information as well as an exporter, not only do the internal states determine the quality of further information processing but so do any affinity relationships.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Processing means traversal across the members, and the greater the similarity between two or more domains the higher the probability the processes during the traversal will contain content from the entire set. Or, put another way, the higher the probability the traversal will include the set of domains and their members. All things being equal, the traversal will proceed along the path of similar content (higher degrees of similarity being favoured). However, representative states being merely representative, anything that modifies the states of some other domains can bring the latter within reach of the former, because both have become affinitive with each other.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">For example, drugs that change the chemical metabolism among neurotransmitters can have the effect of producing associations that otherwise would have been unlikely if not impossible. Depressants modify the pathways such that negative connections, that is to say domains representative of what is perceived as negative by their host, possess a higher degree of probability of being traversed during processing and/or access than those being representative of more positive content. The converse is true in the case of stimulants.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Let us now focus more closely on our topic. A society that displays a certain measure of intolerance does so because within its sumtotal of perceptions, values and priorities it discriminates against manifestations that it sees as a sign of opposition to its nature. Since intolerance needs to be exercised for it to be recognised as such, that society will pro-actively seek out reasons to act out its attitude.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Note that affinity does not need something directly similar; it equally responds to the opposite (just as 'light' indirectly defines 'dark' and 'wet' indirectly defines 'dry'). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Therefore, to understand what an intolerant society dislikes one only has to find out what it favours, and vice versa. In other words, what makes an intolerant society raise its opposition is as much part of its affinity envelope as are its values.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">For that reason an intolerant society will interact - albeit antagonistically - with those sections it considers as, well, intolerable.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">A tolerant society on the other hand sees no inherent reason to engage with different sections since the affinity relationships as described above do not hold. While there is no direct reason to engage, likewise there is no direct reason not to either.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">If interaction engenders a certain familiarity and knowledge (due to the likelihood of traversals), we can expect an intolerant society to have more information about its disparate sections than a tolerant one. Note however that an antagonism does not preclude presumption, especially if driven by a need to distance oneself. How much that last factor influences the quality of information about the 'other' that is admitted into a domain is also a function of ideological intensity overall. (In this context it should be remembered that no society can be identified in terms of a single aspect only)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Examples of these relationships are not hard to find. Consider the reasons given for some intolerance towards a demographic or a custom by those who have come into contact with them, compared to the assumptions about the same held by those whose experience does not include a similar exposure. The difference can also be observed in arguments that arise when both sides seek to justify their opinions against each other, using their respective perception to bolster their positions.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">In conclusion, having a diverse society does not in itself widen its intellectual scope; just as wisdom is not a direct result of the accumulation of data.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-51209880818034447532010-09-04T16:43:00.002+10:002010-09-04T16:46:38.516+10:00Should we be scared of aliens?<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">When discussing alien life forms science fiction writers either tend to delineate from existing circumstances and project into the future, or invent something completely new.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">As to the first, since out of necessity only some aspects belonging to their starting point are used, the future represents an exaggeration of what is already. Hence it can't be a complete picture.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">The other option is to leave the familiar altogether and construct a scenario without any reference to the known. What we get in this case is an idealised version of the writer's vision - not necessarily something positive in human terms, and it is a complete construct. So neither of them is helpful if we want to seriously consider the nature of intelligent aliens.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Yet there is a third option.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Since we are talking about alien <span style="font-style: italic;">life</span>, we are considering complex, dynamic systems. CDSs follow certain rules and regardless of the content, in a functional sense they all are similar. On Earth human societies are and have been as varied as they come. Whether it was the ancient Phoenicians, the Mayas, the Russian Empire or the British, or whether some mountain community in Tyrol, certain features are shared by all of them. Even among relatively lower life forms we find traces of them. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Generally speaking, and focusing on intelligent life, they are -<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style=""><span style="font-style: italic;">1. Procreation:</span> the most important of them all, it defines the life form's survival and its identity. The first forces any potential competition into the background, a degree of priority that subsumes anything else under its authority. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">The second determines the value its owners place on any of its manifestations, and being <span style="font-style: italic;">the </span> core value elevating it to what some of our languages label 'sacred'. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Not only is identity held important, it is the least likely to be subject to rational considerations;<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style=""><span style="font-style: italic;">2. Cooperation:</span> any life form that creates a civilisation must have the capacity to form and favour the herd at whatever level of sophistication. Cooperation needs to be understood as a dynamic applied to the whole (ie, the tribe, society, culture, etc) such that it can be enforced if need be. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Adjacent to its usually positive connotation therefore sits its other side, the will and readiness to move against any usurper. Hence the greater the degree of cooperation overall, the more stringent the measures designed to protect it;<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style=""><span style="font-style: italic;">3. Aggression:</span> considered in relation to the whole it serves to protect against anyone and anything perceived to be a threat. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">The dynamics of identity and cooperation are combined to ensure a positive outcome for their host. Identity serves as the cause, cooperation as the reason, and together they supply the quality and quantity of defense nurtured by aggression.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">The question then, "Should we be scared of aliens" can be answered by assuming there is a civilisation sufficiently evolved to make contact (note: <span style="font-style: italic;">they</span> contact <span style="font-style: italic;">us</span>). This means science and technology exist as a powerful product of the three basics described above, and the intellectual wherewithal to sustain them all.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Sustainability implies understanding, and understanding contains the <span style="font-style: italic;">potential</span> for empathy. Rapacious, colonialising behaviour for its own sake is inherently unsustainable because in a growing system sooner or later the resources needed to control the conquered surpass the benefits.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Yet evolutionary growth also implies the willingness to assert oneself if no other option is left. Both, empathy and assertiveness, go hand in hand but a <span style="font-style: italic;">successful</span> civilisation will still favour assertiveness over empathy in the end.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Should there be an alien race that has achieved the capability to make contact, we can expect them to be curious, firm, but fair overall. Since CDSs incorporate mutually opposing qualities which become apparent should the <span style="font-style: italic;">perceived</span> need arise, we can also expect them to be intrusive, lenient, and capricious.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">How that translates into the world view of an alien would be the most urgent task on our side. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Considering the above it would help being most careful when touching on anything having to do with the context of their procreation, respecting their team spirit when dealing with any representative, and honouring their aims. As to the last, we probably won't have much choice anyway. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Since we can expect them to be intelligent, one way to understand the values and priorities of their minds is to observe their kind of humour. To do that we need to have the opportunity, and this in itself is part of the challenge.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">It should be an interesting exercise!<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330374537332921561.post-5197969434785716132010-08-27T17:22:00.001+10:002010-08-27T17:22:53.801+10:00Moat politics<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">The federal elections a week ago - and so far still undecided - inundated Australians with policies, plans and promises from all directions. To compare their material with the concerns raised by letter writers to the daily newspapers provided an interesting contrast. It led to the common complaint by many that voting was becoming increasingly frustrating. When once it used to be a matter of choosing the most attractive party it has now turned into voting for the least unattractive. Clearly, something is amiss. Which brings me to the following.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Suppose there are a number of trades people who make profound errors (say, connecting pipes so that they leak, or not knowing how to wire up a house). What would it take to point out the mistakes and have them fixed? Or, more precisely, what would it take for somebody to walk into a particular office and say, "There is something wrong here and that's what needs to be done"?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Surely, sooner or later that advice would be taken up - after all, its proof is there for all to see.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">On the other hand -- when it comes to decisions that affect an entire country, our ruling class is impervious to any suggestion, advice, or warning, regardless how serious the situation. At the most, polite standard letters are sent thanking the concerned writer for their time - and that's it.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">To go back to the previous example, suppose nothing is done about the problem. Pipes are left leaking, people continue to be electrocuted. It may be difficult to speculate about the exact shape the building pressure will take, but one can<span style=""> </span>reasonably assume it would be considerable.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Why then do we allow other problems to grow until they reach calamitous proportions? How is it that we take it as given that a politician simply refuses to listen to a complaint of a serious nature, especially when the evidence for its existence can be established clearly and unambiguously? Issues such as the war in Afghanistan come to mind, or our drug laws - both examples draining hundreds of millions of dollars from our nation and causing so many useless deaths as a consequence.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Are our politicians of the opinion that the halls of government have bestowed upon them such unassailable wisdom nowhere else to be found among the width and length of the land, as a result of which every minute given over to us common ignoramuses is a minute wasted away from their profound musings?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">(Question: when was the last time our political betters held forth on transhumanism, or discussed the decline and fall of the Roman Empire?)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Similar issues present when approaching some academics - not all, I hasten to add - who only rise from their intense focus on ordained matters when they can perceive an a priori relevance to their status.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">It seems society's upper echelons have managed to surround themselves with a virtually impenetrable moat that keeps the multitude away from their towers.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">I am reminded of Poe's "The Mask of the Red Death", in which the illustrious gathering was rudely brought to a halt by someone wearing the mask of Death. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="">Only it wasn't a mask.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">M Wurzinger www.otoom.net</div>Martin Wurzingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04989820793187386783noreply@blogger.com0