Value dynamics implied by patterns that connect

Freedom, Democracy, Justice: Isolated Nouns or Interwoven Verbs? (Part #10)

Possibility of a Great Value Attractor: There is a degree of mysterious charm to the recognition by astrophysicists of the existence of a Great Attractor. This is is a gravity anomaly in intergalactic space that reveals the existence of a localised concentration of mass equivalent to tens of thousands of Milky Ways -- observable by its effect on the motion of galaxies and their associated clusters over a region hundreds of millions of light years across.

Great Attractor
(as rendered in a NASA image, reproduced from Wikipedia)

Such an image raises the question as to the nature of a "great attractor" corresponding to the set of values of human civilization -- with the individual galaxies corresponding to the multitude of collective expressions of values through organizations and belief systems in all their variety. As noted, their identification was an endeavour of the Human Values Project. Should efforts to promote the values of the "international community" not seek to offer visual renderings of that kind -- rather than lengthy articulations in legal jargon in particular languages, inherently incomprehensible to most?

Internet connectivity: One image pointing to such a possibility is that of the following visual rendering of internet connectivity (on the left). It was notably reproduced in commentary on the fragmentation of the virtual world through "balkanization of the internet" (The Future of the Internet: a virtual counter-revolution, The Economist, 4 September 2010). The "balkanization" offers an appropriate indication of the quest for different values within the universe of knowledge and communication space -- as with similar images mapping the blogosphere (on the right). Noteworthy at this time is the number of maps made of the Iranian and Arab blogospheres.

Visual representations of the internet
"Nationality" of traffic on the internet (created by the University of California's cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis)	Interconnectedness of the world blogosphere (reproduced from a private blog on Hillary Clinton and US Foreign Policy)

Human brain: As an effort to map one understanding of the emergent "global brain", such internet imagery recalls efforts to map the synapses in the human brain. There remains the tantalizing possibility that science will discover new ways of offering visual renderings of the human brain which could be associated with explorations of visual renderings of value dynamics -- as with current explorations of memetic associations in the brain. Various examples are offered below.

Mapping How the Brain Matures Emily Singer, Technology Review, 10 September 2010	First Detailed Map of the Human Cortex Emily Singer, Technology Review, 7 July 2008

Ring-shaped neuronal networks a platform to study persistent activity Ashwin Vishwanathan, Guo-Qiang Bi and Henry C. Zeringue, Lab Chip, 2011,11, 1081	Diffusion spectrum imaging of human brain Amazing DSI Brain Scanning Visualizes Your Mind's Inner Workings In 3D John Mahoney, Gizmodo, 7 August 2008

In terms of the argument here with respect to values understood dynamically, it should be stressed that the above images imply various kinds of dynamic -- whether with respect to the Great Attractor, internet communications, or signals travelling along synapses. The images are snapshots of a dynamic.

In a blog post, Jose F. Lopez (More brain connections than stars in the universe? No, not even close, 10 September 2010) makes the relevant point that:

Neurons (rough overestimate for adults): 10¹¹, or 100 billion
Synapses (based on 1000 per neuron estimate): 10¹⁴, or 100 trillion
Stars (estimate for observable universe): 7 x 10²²; that's 70 sextillion!

For every brain synapse ("connection") we have, there are (at least) 700 million (700,000,000) stars somewhere out there. In other words, the number of stars per human synapse is about the number of people in Europe. Only if we count up the synapses of all the people alive (10²¹) do we get a number comparable to the star count.

He illustrates his point by reproducing the following map.

Cosmic microwave background map of the universe
(reproduced from Wikipedia)

Fruitful correspondences: Whether to be understood as mere visual metaphor, or whether there is a degree of elegant isomorphism between human brain, global brain and the known universe is a matter for the future. A key factor may well be the capacity of the human brain to envisage and comprehend itself, the internet-based global brain, and the universe. It is assumed here that convergence on such understanding is not dependent on objective confirmation of such isomorphism according to conventional framings of reality -- typically to be vigorously contested from variously disciplinary perspectives. Such a fruitful confluence of insight may be more closely associated with subjective capacity to comprehend and attach credibility and meaning to elusive correspondences -- however the process is assisted by the mnemonic resonance between degrees of isomorphism suggested by metaphor (Theories of Correspondences -- and potential equivalences between them in correlative thinking, 2007; In Quest of Mnemonic Catalysts -- for comprehension of complex psychosocial dynamics, 2007; Imagining the Real Challenge and Realizing the Imaginal Pathway of Sustainable Transformation, 2007).

The possibility has been partially explored in separate exercises (Simulating a Global Brain: using networks of international organizations, world problems, strategies, and values, 2001; Towards an Astrophysics of the Knowledge Universe? from astronautics to noonautics, 2006). Any such possibility should be considered in the light of the fact that far greater effort has been invested (and continues to be invested) in new thinking on how best to conceptualize and comprehend the physical universe, the internet and the human brain, than in rethinking understanding of human values. It is notable in the case of astrophysics and fundamental physics that considerable advances are made -- achieving a degree of credibility despite lack of proof -- on the basic of the internal coherence of the arguments for those with the time, connectivity, capacity and inclination to engage with such particular worldviews.

Quest for new thinking: With regard to democracy, freedom and justice, it remains questionable as to whether useful "new thinking" has emerged in recent decades, as argued by Edward de Bono through his World Council for New Thinking (New Thinking for the New Millennium, 2000).

Calls for "new thinking" within the United Nations system do not appear to have reframed such values in any fruitful way (U.N.'s Ban calls for New Thinking, UNDPI.org, 15 February 2011; UN humanitarian chief calls for new thinking on mega-crises, Terra Daily, 15 September 2010; Jeffrey D. Sachs, The G-20's New Thinking for the Global Economy, Project Syndicate, 2010).

As currently conceived, is a value for any existing institutional system something about which there is nothing new to say? Would this be confirmation of its inability to enrage with the adaptive cycle?

Framed otherwise, this attitude to "value development" might be compared with the sterile nature of the debate regarding the existence of deity or divinity as conventionally defined. The significance of divinity -- so essential to much contemporary political discourse -- must necessarily lie beyond the constraints of particular languages or modes of expression. The same could be fruitfully said of values -- especially if the nature of deity is inferred to be an integration of values beyond human comprehension. The theological justification for apophatic discourse -- unsaying -- could be extended to the vital existential experience and significance of values (Being What You Want: problematic kataphatic identity vs. potential of apophatic identity? 2008).

How is this to be encompassed by "new thinking"? How are values to be got "out-of-the-box", given the constraints of conventional "in-the-box" thinking?

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Value dynamics implied by patterns that connect