Dear Organlearners,
Dan Chay <chay@alaska.net> writes:
>Today I think I have begun to sense the back-action, change
>affect inhering to At's choice and use of the word "commutation."
>My one dictionary refers to the commutation of alternating
>current in electricty and the "back-formation from commutator."
>
>At or others, with your chemistry, physics, biology, psychology,
>and mathematics backgrounds, (at your convenience and if it
>interests you) can you help me pull this together? I thought I
>more or less understood the production of alternating current,
>but I sense there may be more in this "back-formation from
>commutator" in electricity than previously I understood.
>
>At has suggested commutation is necessary to emergence,
>and this makes intuitive sense to me. Emergence, as I
>understand it, involves commutation resulting (contingently)
>in ordinate change.
Greetings Dan,
Thanks for sharing your curiosity with us.
First of all, I am sorry that I have not responded to the posts of all
fellow learners the past four weeks. I had the flu -- a bad strain which
in my case attacked my pancreas. In a matter of a few days it stopped
producing insulin so that I became a full diabete. We are now trying to
activate the pancreas again. Some days it works a bit and other days it
seems to be on holiday. I hope to explain it in more detail in a later
post. My worst problem is my sight. The focal properties of my eyes change
by the day, making reading very difficult.
Although I did not write anything on commutattion recently, it plays a
major role in my thinking. Let me define commutation shortly.
Commutation is the sharing of one or more minor complex
entities by one or more major complex entities.
The concept commutation can be applied universally. It is a direct
consequence of the entropy operator in star-hermitian quantum
mechanics. This entropy operator is the quantum mechanical expression
of the Law of Entropy Production.
To use your electrical alternator as example. The two major complex
entities are the condcuting coils in the rotor and the conducting
leads going out to whatever electrical gadget connected to the
alternator. The minor complex entities are the electrons in the
conductors carrying the electrical energy.
Let us use my body and its present illness as an example. The major
complex entities are all the organs in the body. One minor complex
entity is the insulin secreted by the body. The blood vessels provide
for the commuting paths. The insulin is needed to transport glucose
from the blood into the cells. Without insulin the cells are starved
for energy. Consequently the organs cannot perform work as usual. Thus
the body is prone to immergences. For example, the brain loses its
power to concentrate and perform mental processes on those days when
the insulin is very low. I have experienced it vividly the past few
weeks.
Consider a chemical example. The major complex entities are the
kernels. A kernel is the nucleus of an atom and its inner electrons.
The valency (outer) electrons are the minor complex entities. When the
kerels and the valency electrons commute, the atoms cluster together
so that a molecule emerge.
Think of this LO list as an example. The major complex entities are
the minds of each of us. The minor complex entities are the
contributions which we make to the list. Our host Rick and his
listserver as well as Internet provide for the commutation -- the
sharing of the contributions among us.
Symbiosis is the living together of two or more species in which they
exchange or share things which they produce. Various kind of symbiosis
are possible: commensualism, inquilinism. mutualism and parasitism.
Commutation is the heart of all these ki9nd of symbiosis. Symbiosis
without commutation is impossible.
Even the family can serve as an example. When the marriage partners
(major complex entities) become parents, they emerge to a new level of
consciousness through the baby (minor complex entity) which they now
share.
Commutation is the backbone of communication, communities and
communion.
An organisation cannot emerge into a LO without commutation among all
its members -- things which they have to share for the COMMON GOOD of
the organisation and the community(ties) in which they operate.
>In mathematics, however, one definition of "commutative"
>defines commutative as "independent of order." a x b = b x a.
>I look forward to re-reading the dialogue that I vaguely remember
>having to do with matrices of color. At this point, however, I
>wonder what I am missing to understand the relationship
>between the mathematical commutative property and
>emergence.
Dan, the mathematical description of commutation (the axiom of
commutativity) pushes the idea of commutation to its lower bound
(limit). In the expression "a x b" mathematicians do not distinguish
between which of a or b is major complex or minor complex. The fact is
that a and b share each other in no particular order. Thus "a x b" and
"b x a" denote equal sharing. The emergent in this case is the outcome
of "a x b". Here is a specific example. We have that "2 x 3" and "3 x
2" are exactly the same. The emergent in this case is "6".
There are mathematical systems in which the axiom of commutativity is
excluded. These systems have interesting properties into which I will
not go here.
The Law of Entropy Production (which is the driving force behind the
priciple of causality) is not commutative for successive events. It
means that yesterday, today and tomorrow cannot be interchanged. In
other words, time has an arrow. Thus we have to make the best use of
the opportunities which God gives us.
>I also wonder At, are any of your CBT chemistry units
>available or accessible to someone so far away as me?
Yes. Download the file
ftp://ftp.up.ac.za/pub/admin/telematics/vbcactal/lewisstr/
You will need the Visual Basic 3 operating file
vbrun300.dll
to run the lesson. This lesson in chemistry will explain commutation
to you in terms of the Lewis structures of molecular species (ions and
molecules). You will be astounded how many different molecular
emergences can be predicted by commutation.
While working through this lesson a second or third time, try to
observe how the lesson works in assisting your learning. See if you
can observe your own emergent learning (at the edge of chaos) and
digestive learning (close to equilibrium).
If I do not respond soon as usual, please have patience. My eye sight
has still to return to normal. As it is, I had difficulties in writing
this contribution because of the blurring of the letters, resulting in
a severe headache.
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
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>