Sustaining a Community of Strange Loops
by Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service
Comprehension and Engagement through Aesthetic Ring Transformation
Introduction
This is a development of an argument in an earlier document (Warp and Weft of Future Governance: ninefold interweaving of incommensurable threads of discourse, 2010) with regard to the juxtaposition of the 3-fold interweaving of the argument of Jennifer Gidley (A Macrohistorical Planetary Tapestry: the fascinating integral narratives of Steiner, Gebser and Wilber, 2007) in relation to that proposed by Douglas Hofstadter (Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, 1979). Gidley’s text forms part of her exploration of The Evolution of Consciousness as a Planetary Imperative (2007).
The commentary here relates specifically to Hofstadter’s subsequent articulation of the cognitive challenge (I Am a Strange Loop, 2007) and the question it raises with respect to community governance and collective identity. Namely, is humanity to be understood in some way as a strange loop? Or, framed otherwise, perhaps any interpersonal relationships are better understood as a set of strangely interlocking loops?
References are to be found in the earlier document of which this is effectively an annex. As noted there, the cognitive implications of loops as rings benefit from the studies of “ring composition” in literature, as reviewed by Anthony Blake (Decoding the Past: ring composition and sacred number), notably with respect to the work of anthropologist Mary Douglas (Thinking in Circles: an essay in ring composition, 2007).
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