Visual indication of the cognitive challenge of a hole in time

Cognitive Implication of Globality via Temporal Inversion (Part #2)

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The argument can be variously presented. Later sections, which indicate more familiar ways of approaching the basic argument, could indeed be read prior to the initial focus on time. The following images endeavour to provide a visual framework for the basic argument.

There is now a degree of familiarity with the mysterious nature of the black holes of astrophysics. As summarized by Winkled:

A black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing -- not even particles and electromagnetic radiation such as light -- can escape from inside it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole. The boundary of the region from which no escape is possible is called the event horizon. Although the event horizon has an enormous effect on the fate and circumstances of an object crossing it, no locally detectable features appear to be observed

The concern in what follows is with a cognitive event horizon -- effectively a cognitive modality imperceptible to others. It is the boundary at which the attraction of what is sensed as "massive" becomes so great as to make it impossible to envisage any alternative (other than by the skills of such as Lewis Carroll). Cognitively the experience may be compared to "falling in love" -- whether with a person or a belief. In astrophysics emphasis is placed on the acceleration in velocity in approaching a black hole -- namely a switch in emphasis from T^-1 to T^-2, as higher derivatives of time.

The question explored here is what happens cognitively "after acceleration", namely the even greater intensity of experience associated with even higher derivatives of time -- T^-3, T^-4, T^--5, and thereafter. How is that "direction" to be experienced cognitively, and how is that to be meaningfully communicated? The following images offer some indication of this.

The image on the left uses the convention of a "hole" into which one falls -- a "rabbit hole". How indeed could such a cognitive rabbit hole be usefully represented? That on the right uses the convention favoured by the sense of being "beamed up" -- or possibly of "being enraptured". Both frame ever higher orders of "acceleration". These are successively higher derivatives of time in response to what can be more generally framed as an "attractor".

Alternative representations of a succession of derivatives of time
Descending into higher derivatives of time	Rising into higher derivatives of time

As noted below, the powerful attraction of human values could themselves be explored in such terms (Human Values as Strange Attractors, 1993). The ever increasing intensity might be usefully framed in terms of "time-binding" -- anticipating the reference below to the set of "wrapped up" extra dimensions recognized by physics with respect to the increasing dimensionality of string theory.

As is well recognized in the case of the black holes of astrophysics, associated with "falling in" there is a spiralling motion -- rather than simply falling directly down. Arguably this also applies to the alternative metaphor of "rising up". This vortical motion is well recognized in whirlpools and cyclones. These suggest representations of "cognitive whirlpools" and "cognitive cyclones" with respect to ever more intense experience of time -- perhaps partially recognized in the psychodynamics of crowds.

Spiralling representations of a succession of derivatives of time
Descending spiral into higher derivatives of time	Rising spiral into higher derivatives of time

The above schematics are necessarily only selections of possibilities -- whether with respect to use of the vertical dimension or to the chirality of the spiral. Other significance would be associated with the horizontal dimensions of the disks -- from larger to smaller or from smaller to larger (as suggested by animations below).

Cognitive mystery of the "hole": Valuable insights with respect to the requisite flow of attention are available from the design requirements of nuclear fusion reactors currently under development to recreate the "power of the sun". These call for avoiding any contact between what flows and what contains that flow (Enactivating a Cognitive Fusion Reactor: Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing (ITER-8), 2006; Implication of Toroidal Transformation of the Crown of Thorns: design challenge to enable integrative comprehension of global dynamics, 2011). The flow of plasma within the toroidal container recalls the form of the ouroboros and the possibility of its animation in 3D (Complementary visual patterns: Ouroboros, MÖbius strip, Klein bottle; Circular configuration of cognitive phases framing toroidal experience?).

Whether as a torus, an ouroboros, or a spiritual halo, what is the cognitive significance of the "hole" through which people are born and through which they "pass away" -- individually or collectively -- as suggested by the schematics above and below? There is clearly the implication that it is a multidimensional hole of some dynamic form -- rather than to be oversimplistically understood in static terms.

Of particular relevance is the remarkable exploration by Roberto Casati and Achille C. Varzi (Holes and Other Superficialities, 1994) -- with respect to the borderlines of metaphysics, everyday geometry, and the theory of perception (reviewed by Steven A. Gross, What's in a Hole? The Harvard Review of Philosophy, 1994; see entry on holes in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). As discussed separately, they seek to answer two basic questions: Do holes really exist? And if so, what are they? (Cognitive mystery of holes, lacunae and incompleteness; Nature of metaphysical and theological holes; Cognitive and experiential black holes, 2014).

The subtlety of a "hole"can be recognized to some degree through the symbolism associated with a ring (Engaging with Globality through Cognitive Circlets, 2009). This is also evident in the choice of "ring" or "circle" to describe rather particular forms of psychosocial organization, especially those which are difficult to detect and whose relationships can only be inferred. The most obvious example is a criminal "ring".

There is a peculiar resonance to the phrase "a hole in time". This is reinforced by the fundamental challenge of time for physics (George Musser, A Hole at the Heart of Physics, Scientific American, 287, 2002). Strangely however, physicists now claim to have created such a hole using the temporal equivalent of an invisibility cloak (Punching a Hole in Time, Skeptical Science, 22 July 2011).

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