Towards a new experience of time? LO21291

AM de Lange (amdelange@gold.up.ac.za)
Tue, 13 Apr 1999 16:37:28 +0200

Replying to LO21263 --

Dear Organlearners,

Winfried Deijman < winfried@universal.nl > writes:
(with respect to tacit knowledge):

>No, they don't ; this is to say: I hope they don't. I don't think
>the next step is to articulate it in formal knowledge, that would
>kill the experience again. I even prefer that they NOT try to
>articulate it further. If they do, this would pull the 'extended
>notion' back into their heads. What I want is to let this
>extended notion of time sink down into their body and limbs.

Greetings Winfried,

I think that you and I think differently about how tacit knowledge becomes
formal knowledge. For you it seems to be a activity of the brain employing
a language. Please correct me if I am wrong. For me it is a activity of
the whole body (and not merely the brain) employing any means of
communication (and not merely a language) with any self-organising system
(and not merely humans). This appears to be a mouthful. But this means
shortly that it is a creative activity. Obviously, this meaning depends
on how we now think about creativity. It requires a cognition of what I
prefer to call "deep creativity".

When you write "extended notion of time sink down into their body and
limbs", I can only think of the back action of my tacit knowledge (which
emerged from my experential knowledge) on my experential knowledge. This
back action should not be confused with the emergence (forward action) of
my formal knowledge from my tacit knowledge. This back action and the
forward action are not detrimental to each other. The back action of
tacit knowledge on experential knowledge is to seek new learning
experiences to transcend the former experiences.

Is this not what you describe as follows:

>As said, this new extended notion of time will sink into
>their will; in other words: tacit knowledge will be transformed
>into self transcending knowledge. it will help them to intuitivaly
>do the right thing at the right moment, have the right inspiration
>at the right time, combine the right imagination with the right
notion.

To be able to act intuitively (with tacit knowledge), we need experience
(experential knowledge). Intuition as well as other facits of tacit
knowledge, like anything else, cannot be created in the void.

>Self transcending knowledge is the type of energy that you
>(At de Lange) probably label as being-becoming.

I have not, so far, ever labled any kind of energy as "being-becoming".
However, "becoming-being" is essential in the actual transformation of any
kind of energy into other kind of energy. Since entropy production causes
this transformation, another way to think about "becoming-being" is
"entropy-energy". The best way to consider entropy and energy together, is
to think in terms of free energy. As I have written previously, time is
(for me) nothing else than "changing free energy" -- a creative process. A
watch (clock) is an instrument in which the free energy changes with
constant amounts.

>Formal knowledge (explicite knowledge) is the sum of
>facts + notions. This knowledge is related to the Past.
>It is time transformed into space.

Formal knowledge is (for me) not a being from the past. I have written
several times that it is like a living (becoming-being) entity within the
human acting upon the present. I have stressed that by having such a
viewpoint, I have divorced myself from most philosophers who argue that
reality and knowledge as its mirror are ontological. Formal knowledge is
the art of creating in the "world outside me" a replica of my tacit
knowledge "about the world inside me" in such a manner that it harmonises
with the rest of reality. The replica is not formal knowledge, but merely
cultural objects (information, technology, objects of art. etc.)

>Tacit knowledge is the sum of facts + notions + self awareness.
>This type of knowledge is momentanious (situational); it is
>related to the Present. It can only exist in and through human
>beings. it appears in us at the crossing points of "-"(minus)
>eternity and "+"eternity timeflow. It comes and goes.

Would you please care to explain "it appears in us at the crossing
points of "-"(minus)
eternity and "+"eternity timeflow" to me

>Selff transcending knowledge is the deepest level of knowledge.
>It is knowledge enriched with pure humanity . It is also the highest
>degree of "in between" that can be developed through and for
>humanity. it is energy, necessary to "gestalt" the future. Human
>acts that come forward out of self transcending knowledge will
>work curative.

I prefer to distinguish between four levels in my own knowledge --
experential, tacit, formal and sapient. What you have ascribed above
corresponds to what I call my "sapient level" of knowledge -- in other
words, wisdom. There is a great difference between tacit knowledge and
wisdom. Wisdom is the second level emergent of tacit knowledge. The seven
essentialities are necessary to emerge from experential to tacit level of
knowledge. They are again essential to emerge from the tacit to formal
formal level of knowledge. Finally, they are even essential to emerge from
the formal to the sapient level of knowledge. In fact, it is in this
sapient level where we become the clearest aware of these very
essentialities.

>Okay, let's see where this will lead us.....

A rediscovery of what the name "Homo sapiens" actually means? Another
renaissance for humankind?

Here we learn through dialogue what time means for each of us. For
example, I keep on explaining that for me time is a creative process which
can be constructive or destructive, based on how entropy is created. This
is my experience of time. But in the mean time humans have to suffer
poverty and war. This Janus face of time makes me very sad because for me
it points to a lack in learning -- a problem which humankind up to now
could not solve.

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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