{"id":44487,"date":"2014-07-14T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T11:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=44487"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:33:40","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:33:40","slug":"embodying-a-hypercomplex-of-unhygienic-nescience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/07\/embodying-a-hypercomplex-of-unhygienic-nescience\/","title":{"rendered":"Embodying a Hypercomplex of Unhygienic Nescience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Questionable Connectivity Enabling Apprehension of Matters Otherwise<\/em><\/p>\n

Reimagining a gathering of the Scientific and Medical Network<\/a> (2014), themed as Envisioning and Embodying a New World<\/em>, in the light of a presentation on Unsaying, Meta-discourse and Questionable Connectivity<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

The challenge addressed here is how the future might have sought to imagine a gathering of a “Scientific and Medical Network” in the turbulent period of 2014 — a period of wars and rumours of wars, admirably characterized by the stanza of W. B. Yeats<\/a> following the First World War (The Second Coming<\/em><\/a>, 1919):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
\nMere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
\nThe blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
\nThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;
\nThe best lack all conviction, while the worst
\nAre full of passionate intensity<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

As might be expected the gathering was characterized by silence — a quality of silence which honoured the existential dilemma and the paradoxical nature of action in a time of hubris. Everything could be said — effectively saying nothing. Nothing could be said — effectively saying everything.<\/p>\n

The gathering recalled the Zen tale of the Rainmaker<\/em><\/a> called to a remote village where drought was proving disastrous. He arrived, requested an isolated hut, and withdrew into it for a number of days. When he emerged, it rained. He explains that he did not bring the rain — he had taken refuge to balance himself, naturally balancing the outside world through that process — and it rained. From what insight does such understanding emerge? Is “rain” now to to be equated with “inspiration? Framed otherwise, what might be imagined of a gathering potentially to be understood as convened in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe<\/em><\/a> (1980) — as creatively presented by Douglas Adams<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Irrespective of the Adams framing, the question remains as to how the future, distant or otherwise, might choose to imagine the dynamics of a gathering at this crucial time. How is it that science fiction has tended to present possibilities as variants of meeting patterns of the present — with their own remarkable resemblance to those of the distant past, despite the extraordinarily rapid innovation in other domains?<\/p>\n

The approach taken follows from previous exercises in imaginative speculation (Enacting Transformative Integral Thinking through Playful Elegance: a Symposium at the End of the Universe?<\/em><\/a> 2010; Gardening Sustainable Psycommunities: recognizing the psycho-social integrities of the future<\/em><\/a>, 1995; Aesthetics of Governance in the Year 2490<\/em><\/a>, 1990).<\/p>\n

The argument focuses on the unfruitfulness of global discourse in response to current crises — as exemplified by the political and religious doublespeak<\/a> enabled by science (Enabling Suffering through Doublespeak and Doublethink<\/em><\/a>, 2013). This leads to consideration of clues about how to talk about what cannot be effectively articulated — and which is therefore highly susceptible to problematic misinterpretation and misunderstanding. How then to envisage the nature of an appropriate container for discourse which renders any conventional container non-viable and unsustainable?<\/p>\n

PLEASE CONTINUE READING THE PAPER IN THE ORIGINAL \u2013 laetusinpraensens.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The argument focuses on the unfruitfulness of global discourse in response to current crises — as exemplified by the political and religious doublespeak enabled by science (Enabling Suffering through Doublespeak and Doublethink, 2013).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}