Enabling Wisdom Dynamically within Intertwined Tori
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 16 Apr 2012
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service
Requisite Resonance in Global Knowledge Architecture
Introduction
The theme emerged from consideration of how wisdom could be rendered into more compact form for dissemination on Twitter, constrained by the 140 character limitation on any tweet message. The example explored was the set of 48 Zen koan assembled in a classic collection compiled in 1228 by the Chinese Zen master Wumen Hui-k’ai. The collection is known Mandarin as Wúménguān and in Japanese as Mumonkan. Chan Zong Wumen Guan commonly translated in English asThe Gateless Gate, although the implications of this are contested — as evident in the translation by Robert Aitken (The Gateless Barrier, 1991). A 49th koan, which appeared in a classic edition, has also been considered part of the set. Of particular interest was how the set could be configured and portrayed for greater comprehension and memorability, most notably using polyhedra. This was explored in an earlier document (Configuring a Set of Zen Koan as a Wisdom Container: formatting the Gateless Gate for Twitter, 2012).
In this further development of that argument account is also taken of the wisdom traditionally associated with the set of 64 conditions denoted by the binary coding system of the I Ching as previously explored, especially in the light of its traditional importance to decision-making and governance within Chinese culture (Transformation Metaphors — derived experimentally from the Chinese Book of Changes (I Ching) for sustainable dialogue, vision, conferencing, policy, network, community and lifestyle, 1997). The two sets are seen as offering very convenient case studies of how a complex set of subtle insights can be “packaged” through forms which enhance the capacity to comprehend their integrity.
In considering the importance of “configuration” in relation to knowledge and insight, the current recognition of the need for a radically different computer architecture is noted with respect to 3D connectivity of memory through the form of a torus as now used in supercomputers. The reasons for this mode of organization bear a remarkable similarity to the issues in governance and decision-making now severely constrained by information overload and issues of connectivity within complex organizations and knowledge structures.
A further thread to this argument is the recognition that the most fundamental molecular structure essential to the biology of life — the ring structure of the benzene molecule — is recognized as misconceived when considered as a static configuration of bonds as so readily represented. An essential feature of the structure is the dynamics of the reconfiguration of its bonds — from which its viability and integrity derives. The possibility that knowledge architecture — and the emergence of sustaining wisdom — may depend on a form of resonance is related to the above considerations in the following argument. “Wisdom” may then be fruitfully recognized as an emergent dynamic subsequent to that enabling “life”.
As noted with respect to the introductory paper, it might well be said that global governance could certainly do with a “gateless gate” through which to transcend the polarized thinking into which it so frequently sinks. The argument here is that, in order to hold coherently the pattern of insights on which survival depends, the challenge is how to “package wisdom” so that its implications for viable governance can be comprehended “at a glance”.
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This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 16 Apr 2012.
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