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Potential cognitive embodiment of other species: re-cognized in a global context?
Cognitive Embodiment of Nature Re-cognized Systemically (Part #5)
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Embodiment of other species: As noted above, there is already a degree of recognition of animal behaviour patterns in individuals and corporations through framing as dolphins, sharks, crocodiles, tigers, bulls, and the like. Corporations may indeed be seen to take on the character of the species which informs their strategy. At the national level, an obvious example is the reference in economics to the Asian Tigers -- a group comprising Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Animal mascots may be variously valued, even elected to leadership positions, as with the Rhinoceros Party of Canada. Whether humorously or otherwise, these may be more consciously (an proudly) cultivated as strategic styles or in relation to tribal totems. The psychological modality may be evident in the choice of fancy dress for a party.
Although widely deprecated as animism, there may well be modalities which merit revisiting, if not rehearsing -- as practiced with children in kindergarten, imitating a dog or a tiger. A case may be made for distinguishing between animism and speciesism, as variously deprecated -- possibly in contrast with anthropomorphism.
Cognitive incarnation in species? As information processing patterns, "humans" may well be able to "reincarnate" in animal behavioural patterns (or be effectively obliged to do so by their behaviour). Hence the intuitive recognition of this transformation through nicknames and adoption of totems. Aspects of the argument are presented separately (Life-skill Learning from Animal Shareholders and Collaborators: cognitive opportunity for engaging radically with a complex world in crisis, 2014) in the following sections:
Reference to "cognitive" calls into question the nature of the unconscious relation to the species which inhabit the human body and are essential to its viability. The human microbiota consists of the 10-100 trillion symbiotic microbial cells harbored by each person, primarily bacteria in the gut; the human microbiome consists of the genes these cells harbor. As noted by Wikipedia:
The human microbiota is the aggregate of microorganisms that resides on or within any of a number of human tissues and biofluids, including the skin, mammary glands, placenta, seminal fluid, uterus, ovarian follicles, lung, saliva, oral mucosa, conjunctiva, biliary and gastrointestinal tracts. They include bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists and viruses. Though micro-animals can also live on the human body, they are typically excluded from this definition. The human microbiome refers specifically to the collective genomes of resident microorganisms.
The traditional estimate has been that the average human body is inhabited by ten times as many non-human cells as human cells (Ron Sender, Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body, PLOS, 19 August 2016; Luke K Ursell, Defining the Human Microbiome, Nutrition Reviews, 70, 2012, August). How might the "bond" with such microorganisms be understood?
Nature of identification: The question is how this identification with a species "works", as most notably evident in the relationship of humans to their pets or to other domesticated animals (donkeys, oxen, water buffalos, etc). Popular media may encourage their audiences to recognize with which species they identify -- even "which animal are you" (Which pet are you? Quizony; Which Dog Are You? Qfeast; Which Cat Are You? Quizclub). More provocative would be the question: "by which corporate species are you employed"?
It could be considered tragic that the engagement with nature as a whole is increasingly to be recognized as reduced to the sympathy bond with a pet -- with which an intense degree of communication may indeed be cultivated. This may be recognized as a form of co-dependency, notably in the psychological importance attached to "companion animals" (Traveling With Companion Animals, PETA). Frequently treated as members of the family, this curiously recalls the "familiars" much deprecated in the past.
One modality meriting investigation with respect to empathy with domesticated animals is that consequent on the operation of mirror neurons, namely the firing of a neuron both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another (Adam MiklÓsi. Do Dogs Have Mirror Neurons? Scientific American; Colin Perkins-Taylor, Dogs Are Wired To Be Man's Best Friend; Robert Lloyd, Nature: Why We Love Cats and Dogs, Los Angeles Times, 14 February 2009).
The identification process may be related to that of transference (and countertransference) as recognized in psychoanalysis. In the case of pets, this may be termed "pet transference" (Lynda Mae, Spontaneous trait transference from dogs to owners, AnthrozoÖs: a multidisciplinary journal of the interactions of people and animals, 17, 2004, 3; Bennett Roth, Pets and Psychoanalysis: a clinical contribution, Psychoanalytic Review, 92, 2005, 3; Terence Blacker, So, it's true what they say about pet-owners, The Independent, 18 July 2000).
Far more fundamental may be the identification with species in nature, as celebrated in the movie Dances with Wolves (1990), for example. It is intriguing to note that in the design of avatars in artificial worlds, animal forms may be adopted -- effectively a cognitive exoskeleton (Furry Avatars, SecondLife; Yulin Hswen, Virtual Avatars, Gaming, and Social Media: designing a mobile health app to help children choose healthier food options, Journal of Mobile Technology in Medicine, 30 July 2013). The dialogue of some gardeners with their plants calls for reflection in this light.
Less evident are the degrees of identification possible, as highlighted by deep ecology, and the conditions under which those cultivated in questionable rituals merit deprecation -- and why. More intriguing is any sense of the set of species between which a person alternates as a basis for a form of sustainability. Tyrannical leaders may be readily recognized as alternating between a savage shark-like modality and that of a "pussy-cat" with their families.
Other clues may be offered by the manner in which an individual chooses which set of clothes to wear according to circumstance -- and when to switch to another more appropriate set. Although such clothes may involve animal skins (as with furs), more intriguing is the sense that the cognitive ability associated with such switching could be understood as indicative of the possibility of identifying with one or other animal species.
Kingdoms as distinctive information patterns? The argument to this point has loosely focused on identification with animal species, avoiding the existing tendency of (some) humans to identify with the species of other kingdoms. How many information species are required for viability and sustainability? How might this variety extend to include the totality of the species in nature -- namely those variously clustered as the kingdoms of life: 8-kingdom model, 7-kingdom model, 6-kingdom model, 5-kingdom model (Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista and Monera)?
Somewhat curiously anthropomorphism attributes human characteristics to species, most typically animals. As such it is readily deprecated. Zoomorphism, however, is notably understood to be a form of art that imagines humans as non-human animals. As argued above, it may also be any tendency of viewing human behaviour in terms of the behaviour of animals.
From an artistic perspective again, biomorphism models artistic design elements on naturally occurring patterns or shapes reminiscent of nature and living organisms.This seemingly excludes the identification with plants, as with sacred trees, or the experience of many gardeners in the cultivation of their favourite plants. Such identification has however been variously explored (Michael Marder and Patricia Vieira, Writing Phytophilia: philosophers and poets as lovers of plants, Estudogeral, 2013; Richard Yensen and Donna A. Dryer, The Consciousness Research of Stanislav Grof: a cosmic portal beyond individuality, 1996; Ervin Laszlo, A New Map of Reality: the worldview of 21st Century science). The cognitive relation to the botanical sphere in indigenous cultures is a theme of Jeremy Narby (Intelligence in Nature, 2005; Psychotropic Mind: the world according to ayahuasca, iboga, and shamanism, 2010).
Ironically, identification with flowers and fruit may well be necessarily "fruitful" as mind maps of a particular kind (Keith Critchlow, The Hidden Geometry of Flowers: living rhythms, form and number, 2011). The forms of fruits and nuts may prove to be especially indicative of the variety of interfaces between subjectivity and objectivity, between inside and outside.
Identification with topography? Whilst "geomorphism" might have been understood to describe the identification of some with sacred mountains, or with sacred rivers, and "topomorphism" might have extended this to other topographicsl features, neither of these terms exists.
Such processes of identification are of course a notably characteristic of indigenous knowledge systems (Darrell A. Posey (Ed.). Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity. United Nations Environmental Programme and Intermediate Technology Publications, 1999). They are also evident in terms of the identification with landscape and sense of place, as extensively documented (J. and R. Swan (Eds.), Dialogues With the Living Earth: new ideas on the spirit of place from designers, architects, and innovators, 1996; Neil Leach, Belonging: Towards a Theory of Identification with Place, Perspecta, 33, 2002, pp. 126-133; Alxe Noden and Martin Hakubai Mosko, Landscape as Spirit, 2003).
These recall the psychosocial appropriation of a space at the collective level described by the cognitive process of land nam, coined by Ananda Coomaraswamy (The Rg Veda as Land-Nama Bok, 1935), to refer to the Icelandic tradition of claiming ownership of uninhabited spaces through weaving together a metaphor of geography of place into a unique mythic story. This territorial appropriation process, notably practiced by the Navaho and the Vedic Aryans, was further described by Joseph Campbell (The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: metaphor as myth and religion, 2002).
The cognitive significance of Jerusalem offers perhaps the most striking example at this time (Topology of "Jerusalem": a psychoactive engagement with space, 2009; Jerusalem as a Symbolic Singularity: comprehending the dynamics of hyperreality as a challenge to conventional two-state reality, 2017). It offers the further illustration of the total incapacity to detach cognitively from that framework when appropriate (Beyond Harassment of Reality and Grasping Future Possibilities: learnings from sexual harassment as a metaphor, 1996). The inability of rigid theological structures to shapeshift cognitively is epitomized by their fundamental hostility to "witchcraft". This total lack of flexibility is provocatively contrasted below with "whichcraft".
Identification with the elements? Traditionally the four or five classical elements have have been intimately entangled with the most fundamental symbols of cognitive significance, as evident with respect to the Chinese dynamic of the Wu Xing. This process continues to be evident through their use as metaphors: Earth / Solid, valued as solidity of argument and otherwise; Water / Liquidity, most notably valued in finance; Air / Wind. most notably valued as imagination and "the winds of change"; Fire, variously valued in terms of excitement and creativity (Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander, Surfaces and Essences: analogy as the fuel and fire of thinking, 2013).
The interplay between them is most evident in the weather with which people variously identify, and which as a metaphor offers an array of implications (Weather Metaphors as Whether Metaphors, 2015; Crises framed by weather metaphors, 2015)
Eradication of species and their extinction: Clearly there is a widespread propensity to see no value whatsoever in some species. Their eradication is of little concern and may be framed as a valuable strategy -- as with mosquitoes and locusts. The same has been said of the degradation of the most fundamental features of the environment: the land, the sea, the air -- and even light pollution.
Understood as a memetic resource -- an information pattern of relevance to particular systemic conditions -- there is a case for care in unthinking eradication of any species. What systemic function does it perform and can a global psychosocial environment afford to lack that modality?
The concern can be framed otherwise. The set of all species as a form of biological pattern language -- as an exemplification of requisite diversity -- may be of such a fundamental nature that the extinction of any one form in its biological manifestation may well engender its emergence in a psychosocial form.
In other words, any "successful" effort to eradicate a species in nature then ensures its re-emergence, although seemingly otherwise, yet recognizable in systemic terms through a pattern language. There may be a principle of conservation of patterns to be discovered -- implied by the conservation of information so fundamental to physics. In that sense, Gaia as a system may function to ensure the auto-conservation of species and diversity (Fritjof Capra and Pier Luigi Luisi, The Systems View of Life: a unifying vision, 2014). This would be a theme consistent with the original spirit of the Society for General Systems Research (SGSR).
The point can be emphasized otherwise with regard to the destruction of nature:
But if 'wilderness' is to be understood as a place of wildness and disorder, it is easy to forget that human society actually recreates such places with great efficiency, just as it appears to be annihilating them. The irony is that it is the actions of architects and planners which have contributed so dramatically to creating the wilderness of inner city 'no go' areas and the urban 'jungle'. Development programs have in many cases created wilderness in this way. Current approaches to population control will continue to do so with a vengeance. (Within a different framework, a Tibetan Buddhist was asked in the USA -- in the light of the extermination of the bison and his belief in reincarnation -- where the present number of people came from. Looking around the room at his attentive audience, he answered simply: 'And where do you think the bison went?'). The dimensions through which nature strikes a balance are as yet unclear. (The "Wilderness" of Western intellectualism, 1995)
The death of a species then merits exploration in terms of systems failure (Variety of System Failures Engendered by Negligent Distinctions: mnemonic clues to 72 modes of viable system failure from a demonic pattern language, 2016). Would there be as yet unrecognized psychological implications for humanity with the extinction of iconic species like whales, elephants or tigers? With respect to the extermination of the bison, this would be acknowledged within Native American cultures.
In the light of principles of action/reaction, is there a systemic effect on humanity consequent on the extinction of a species in nature -- typically as a consequence of human activity?
There might then be a case for reinterpreting the significance of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in psychosocial terms -- beyond any superficial symbolic connotations. Such an exploration would then bear comparison with those on endangered cultures (Paradisec) and endangered languages (Endangered Languages Archive). Are there systemically valuable mindsets which merit recognition as being endangered by the current evolution of global civilization?
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