Constructive Creativity and Leadership. Part 7. LO27748 -- Bifurcation

From: AM de Lange (amdelange@gold.up.ac.za)
Date: 02/04/02


Replying to LO27711 --

Dear Organlearners,

Greetings to all of you.

Here follows the second section of my answer to
Leo Minnigh < l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl > who wrote:

>7. At wrote: "The more complex the environment of
>any system, the less the free energy that system will
>have for digestive purposes".
>Although I see many examples that sustain this
>proposition, I see also the contrary. We live in a world
>of ever increasing complexity. The proposition suggests
>that the frequency of emergences of the systems that
>compose the entire world will slow down - they need
>ever increasing time for digestion to build up their free
>energy for the next bifurcative emergence. But what we
>see is an ever increasing frequency of emergences, for
>instance in biological evolution, in scientific and
>technological evolutions, organisational evolutions, etc.
>Is this a sign that all of us drive to a final bifurcation where
>a final immergence happens, because of not having the
>patience of digestion? I don't believe in such an Armageddon.

Dear Leo, the sentence to which you referred to, is one which I would like
to explain much more in a rewriting.

You are right. Should we represent any evolution (geological, biological,
linguistic, scientific or cultural) on a linear time scale, we cannot but
notice this increase in frequency between emergences forming a
complexifying lineage. Usually the time divides roughly into halve from
the one emergence to the next MORE COMPLEX emergence in the line . Each of
these emergences in the complexifying lineage had been backed up by a
successful digestion.

We should bear in mind that there is not only one complexifying lineage in
the universe. We may study one of them (say biological) as our system SY,
but then the others will form part of the surroundings SU. As a result
this SY (complexifying lineage) will benefit from its interaction with the
surroundings SU which also complexifies. This interaction is a positive
feedback loop so that the frequency of emergences in the system SY
increases.

We should not only bear in mind emergences forming a complexifying
lineage, but also those who stagnated because of insufficient digestion.
They may even replicate themselves for innumerous generations, but they
cannot complexify themselves into something new. They can be represented
by the following cladogram in figure 1. (The "cladogram" is a technical
term which I borrow from biology.) Rick, please archive the cladogram and
supply its URL here

   http://www.learning-org.com/graphics/LO27748_1_cladoline.gif

On the cladogram complexity increases from left to right while time
increases from top to bottom where the present is. The thickness of any
line indicates complexity -- the thicker, the more complex. The lineage of
complexifying emergences is represented by the continuous line going down
to the right. This line branches frequently while getting thicker at each
branch. The stagnated emergences are represented by lines going down to
the left. Each of these lines has no branches any more. Some may persist
even to the present while others (like c and f) became extinct.

This is the simplest cladogram we can have. Actually, lines going down to
the left may also have some branches, but far less than the line going
down to the right. However, let us investigate the simple cladogram
because it will tell why the rule "The more complex the environment of any
system, the less the free energy that system will have for digestive
purposes" eems to have so many exceptions.

Each branch represents the emergence of a new order. For example, the
order "A" emerges in the new order "Bb" with complexer qualities. These
qualities are immature in free energy and thus have to grow into maturity
by digestion. The members "B" of the order "Bb" succeed in becoming mature
through digestion whereas the members "b" stay immature in the free energy
of their new qualities. But it may happen through the passage of time that
they eventually may find themselves in a less complex environment so that
they also may mature digestively. Thus line b may have a few branches too.
Notice how the successive intervals between branches get shorter. It means
the frequency of emergences increases.

It is this splitting of emergences Bb, Cc, Dd, ... into the complexifying
lineage B, C, D, ... and the stagnated orders b, c, d, ... which causes
the seemingly many exceptions to the rule "The more complex the
environment of any system, the less the free energy that system will have
for digestive purposes".

Leo, you will remember the many times in our LO-dialogue we have discussed
the issue of linear thinking. Figure 1 provides another interesting
example on this issue. In figure 1 many of us will think of complexity as
depending on time. Time is then said to be the independent variable and
complexity to be the dependent variable. We then represent these two
variables by rectilinear axes such as in figure 1. The outcome for a
cladogram is that the complexifying lineage appears visually as a straight
line. So what has become of Goethe's concept of "Steigerung" (staggering,
"stapeling"). What can we do to present this "Steigerung" visually in the
cladogram?

Goethe said that at certain level of spiritual wholeness a person becomes
aware of this "Steigerung". Thus we must try to get more wholeness between
time and complexity to see this "Steigerung. But how? Well, we will have
to study those patterns which wholeness has in it. The pattern which most
people recognise is "all parts united". But Jan Smuts said that wholeness
is also a "whole with its field". Will these two patterns help us? I do
not know. But I do know that the pattern X*Y*Z ( associativity) helped me
to find a solution.

To get more wholeness between time and complexity we have
to set up the associative pattern
. time * Y * complexity
and then try to identify the umlumo (mouthpiece Y). It will be
something on which both time and complexity depend. This Y
is for me nothing else than "entropy production" (two words,
one concept). It might be for somebody else another thing.
But the most interesting thing is that we actually need not
identify Y. We merely have to bear in mind that both time
and complexity depend on Y.

Since both time and complexity depend on Y, they are both
dependent variables. Therefore we will not present them on
rectilinear axes, but on two parallel axes. Figure 2 gives the
result.

   http://www.learning-org.com/graphics/LO27748_2_cladofrac.gif

In this cladogram both time and complexity increase from top to bottom up
to the present. For a digestive increase in quantities we draw the lines
sloping away from the vertical time axis while for a bifurcative increase
in qualities we draw the lines sloping back to the vertical time axis.
Even though we use the same information as in figure 1, the outcome is
startling different in figure 2. In figure 1 the complexifying lineage is
the thickening straight line going down to the right, but in figure 2 it
is the thickening zig-zag pattern going down in the centre. This is the
visual representation of Goethe's concept "Steigerung".

Goethe carefully worked such "Steigerung"s in his epic poems and dramas.
His admirer Beethoven did the same in his musical compositions. For both
of them sufficient wholeness was crucial to have this "Steigerung". Their
works of art and the "Steigerung" in them are not legendes, but there for
anyone to admire.

It is possible for any person to even experience this "Steigerung" when
learning any subject. However, sufficient wholeness is again crucial. I
have helped many a learner to such a level of wholeness that they began to
experience this "Steigerung". Without exception they said that it brought
them immense delight.

Leo, figure 2 looks very much like some kind of pyramid! Now
let us seek for wholeness between your question 7 and your
earlier comment on the Great Pyramid (GP). Let us invert
figure 2 so that its top becomes its bottom and vice versa. We
can do it in our imagination, but I have prepared such an
inversion in

   http://www.learning-org.com/graphics/LO27748_3_carfodalc.gif

Every emergence is again a change in direction. The "Steigerung" is now an
thickening zig-zag going upwards.

The GP in Egypt is unlike all the others in many respects. One
startling feature is that it has sloping passages inside it, leading
to chambers or a pit. A plan of them viewed from the side looks
somewhat like the inversion of figure 2. Here is a rough sketch
I have made of that plan:

   http://www.learning-org.com/graphics/LO27748_4_GPyramid.gif

Does the GP symbolise a unique emergence in the history of
humankinds "Steigerung"?

>.... At has sketched also in many other contributions
>that if a system 'wants' to evolve constructively via an
>emergence, the 7 E's should be in balance with each
>other. All of them must be tuned. I got the impression
>that nature has a clever conductor who is a master in
>tuning the 7 E's. To the contrary with humans, who seem
>to have difficulties in this tuning and therefore 'create' the
>risk for immergences to happen.

>Humans are part of nature, but somehow they seem to
>be able to manipulate the internal entropic forces of the
>7 E's, whereas nature seems to lack this 'manipulating'
>force; in nature all seems to happen in balance. What
>intrigues me is the question if there is a mysterious 8th
>force which is encompassing the forces of the 7 E's. A
>mysterious balancing force that is present in natural
>processes, the RULING FORCE OF NATURE, but
>which could be overruled by humans. And thinking
>further on this matter, I have the fearful feeling that I enter
>in an endlessly self-referring loop, because even forces
>could not escape nature and the universe - they are an
>integral part of it.

Leo, as I see it, the 7Es are the rails by which the "world-inside me"
have a "Steigerung" from its order creativity through the orders knowledge
and faith to the order of love. In the order of knowledge I may learn more
of the 7Es. This knowledge then has a back action on the 7Es in my
creativity, thus closing the loop. This control on creativity by closed
loops from all the higher orders is for me the "8th force" which you write
about. This "8th force" makes my creativity more constructive. But by
breaking one or more of these loops so that my creativity lacks
spirituality, the "8th force" loses its power so that destructive
creativity takes over. The less the spirit in creativity, the more
destructive it becomes.

Often, when I was exploring some desert alone, I "felt" the presence of
God as the Conductor of what happens in nature. Gradually I came deeply
under the impression of how much God let changes happen spontaneously in
nature, i.e., with a decrease in free energy supplied by the system
itself. The ratio of spontaneous to non-spontaneous changes in nature is
very high.

However, we humans have learned how to let non-spontaneous changes also
happen. This can only happen when we use a source of free energy to
increase the free energy of the system by doing some or other kind of work
on it. Humankind has learned through the millennia how to accomplish more
and more non-spontaneous changes. Hence the ratio of spontaneous to
non-spontaneous changes in human culture has become very low.

I perceive no problem in this lowering of the ratio of spontaneous to
non-spontaneous changes in culture. But I perceive a horrendous problem in
managing such non-spontaneous changes! The spontaneous changes in natural
system happen in harmony with the developmental age of the 7Es in that
system. If one or more of the 7Es are immature for a certain spontaneous
change in the system, that change will just not happen. Thus immergences
at spontaneous bifurcations and ablations at spontaneous digestions are
seldom in nature.

However, when a human begins to force by work a non- spontaneous change in
any system to happen, that human overrides the guidance of that system's
own spontaneous changes by its own 7Es according to their developmental
age. It is as if that human tries to replace the system's 7Es with his own
7Es according to their development in him. This is the "manipulating
force" which you write about. It is then when immergences and ablations
begin to abound. This destructive creativity is a result of that human's
lack of spirituality by the severely restricted 7Es in him.

Yesterday I met a wonderful lady who as an eight year old girl went to a
picnic at the river on the farm of Jan Smuts, the Oubaas. (That would have
been about 1950.) The river runs close to the house. She vividly remembers
how the white haired Oubaas came out of the house to talk with them. She
said that never again had she met such a kind man who took so much
interest in them as children at that picnic. Only much later in life did
she learn that the Oubaas was Jan Smuts, former prime minister of South
Africa. Even later she learned that he was also the father of
holism="increasing wholeness".

Jan Smuts lost the election in 1948 because the majority voted for
apartheid="decreasing wholeness". While the lady talked, I suddenly
imagined a vivid movie in my mind of how the ratio of kind to cruel people
in South Africa steadily decreased because of this apartheid="decreasing
wholeness". Meanwhile the "manipulating forces" increased drastically --
the recipe for destructive creativity.

I have questioned many elderly people on when they first became aware that
the ratio of kind to cruel people was declining rapidly in our country.
Most of them gave an answer between 1970 and 1980. In other words, 25
years of apartheid="decreasing wholeness" were enough for the loss of your
"8th force" and hence much of the destruction of our nation's
spirituality. We are now in desperate need of leaders capable of promoting
constructive creativity. That is why I wrote this series of essays on
"Constructive creativity and leadership".

I wish I could speak for other countries too. What I observe here from
South Africa through the various media, is that some other countries are
also failing drastically in one or more of the 7Es. Like we did in our
country, many people in each of these nations cheer patriotism having the
face of cruelty rather than kindness. It makes me so sad that I often cry
for those people. To learn the opposite, namely to become richer in grace
and respect for fellow humans and nature takes such a long long time,
especially if it has to be done from the self caused ashes and rubble of
ignorant arrogance.

If we want to build something as awe inspiring for many millennia as the
Great Pyramid, then we will have to increase our wholeness far beyond what
it is now.

With care and best wishes

-- 

At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa

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