Thursday 31 May 2007

Visit our culture shop. Bargains galore.

Under construction

Pre-conceived ideas about the qualities of the culture, each one of us belongs to and prefabricated notions of other cultures and their members. Off the self in each culture's megastore, be that French, American, Chinese, Siamese, ready made, handy, for all occasions and all circumstances.

hand-me-downs from father to son, from mother to daughter, generation after generation as old as the hills that surrounds us, solid strong, written on stone, petrified and putrefied.

they need the exchange of ideas

each culture eventually reaches a point where there is a stalemate, it requires a fresh load of ideas, notions, conceptions to carry on and where could somebody find new ideas, sometimes mature ready for picking, but in the ideas proliferated in other cultures. By denigrating other cultures they are denying themselves a rich cauldron of ideas which if they were infused in their culture would have provided solutions to nagging problems in their culture.

All in all, such an approach is short-sighted, skin-deep literally and figuratively and is down to ignorance and the proliferation of ignorance among their midst.

for the other part, anti-racist propaganda reeks of pitiness, sympathy and condescension, spend an enormous amount of effort on terminology and technicality and doe not take into consideration or is oblivious of the real reason of why a culture's individuals should shed and shun all negative notions for individuals from other cultures and let the flow of ideas move unhindered from culture to culture, the cross-cultural exchange.

the shrewd store-keepers, display their products ingeniously, usually individuals with an insatiable thirst for wealth and power. In their pursuit for wealth and power they require unconditional undivided support for their schemes to work plays with their fears cashes in on their ignorance
deeply involved are address the most basic instincts
in their employ the race's intellectual elite who by their skills in prose, verse or oratory tirelessly, effectively and efficiently declare the prowesses of their race. To accomplish such a task, it requires a comparison guide, something to compare against, easily to be found in members of other races which wholeheartedly denigrate. This, by no means being the sole privilege of any particular race. All races possess or possessed willing participants who taken up, lost in the swirling embrace of their magnificent elaborate exposition and want of admiration advanced the pride of their race to ever dizzier heights contributed bred wholesome ideas bred on the state of ignorance, not seeking to understand, refusing to reason and instead customed to hate.

Avoid these all-annoying tingling, fanciful agitations in your brain, they call thinking, time consuming. Instead use easy to use solutions, will ease your problems, success guaranteed. Special discounts for our young clientèle. You can explain everything. Each culture has its own all-in-one shop of off-the-self ideas about members of other cultures and each of us (has bought) must have experienced their effects. In cultures kept isolated from other cultures this is not a problem. The problem arises when in a society there are more than one influential culture.

That was ok 100 1000 years ago when travel and communication was minimal and people seldom ventured outside their limited boundaries and formulated their culture whereas purely matter of limited contact kept them ignorant and distant of other cultures and their members and the only contact they had was based on the grounds of their differences which were bringing up disputes which were often resolved by the knife, in heroic battles for the nourishment of their ethnic identity and belittlement of other cultures ethnic identity.
What then? Of course as each culture representative use its own culture corner shop, to purchase his of-the-shelf values, there would be problems of various extent. Do we need that? We need a culture shop, it expresses the continuity in our lives,it somehow blends with our disposition and with our genetic make-up.
What we do not need are the of-the-self images about the members of other cultures. The stereotypes produced. It induces people to behave in ways alien to the disposition, as is defined in their culture. Against their true disposition. Multicultural societies present a great opportunity for co-existent cultures. Each culture to assimilate within it, revised ideas about the stereotypes of other culture and their significance is valuable in the establishment of a state of harmony in the world. Its whenever, when you try to apply it doesn't fit. What do you do then? You return the goods to the shop and demand refund. You demand another that deals (with) that easily fits the situation or ignore any discrepancies, dismiss them (as details) and continue to use the old ill-fitting model, ignoring any protests from the ill-fitted subject, and blaming the subject not the model.

Monday 21 May 2007

Adopting incorrect viewpoints leads to knowledge incapable to explain phenomena

     Nature is quite frugal in the amount of information that makes available for us to understand and explain phenomena. Therefore we rely on a limited set of features and conditions pertained in the phenomena, to build knowledge and improve understanding. Moreover, our capacity to discern subtle differences in features and conditions, is limited and this further deteriorates the quality of knowledge gained.

      This continues on when we assign incorrect weights in selected attributes driven by motives other than valid reason. Such action ignores valid attributes, or even distort chosen attributes, misrepresenting the phenomenon. Assumed viewpoints lead to a body of knowledge incapable of explaining the phenomena in question. The knowledge thus produced is incomplete, in its mild form, misleading and unrealistic, to outright harmful, in its most severe form.

     This process affects all knowledge systems, humans develop to explain phenomena. From the physical sciences to the social sciences to the systems of knowledge we develop to explain social and historical phenomena. Phenomena that are driven by human interactions in the scale of civilisations, societies and communities as well as to the scale of markets, organisations, industries, educational establishments, workplaces, right down to an individual's own personal relationships.

     This is more significant if attained knowledge is used to define the behaviour of human individuals in social structures. Assuming the chaotic influence in the evolution of life systems, behaviour so defined is reproduced by self-similarity across scales. Reproduced patterns of behaviour, spread and become dominant. They form a set of automated responses, habits, and provide the rules for human-agent interactions. Human-agent interactions, that are based upon incomplete, misleading, unrealistic or harmful body of knowledge, adversely affect the systems they provide the foundations for. Thus systems, by definition, have a built-in element of self-doubt that erode their integrity from within.

Thursday 17 May 2007

Our linear and non-linear lives

     Describe the ways changes propagate in our lives, under the constant cause and effect relationships between the conditions of the environment and features of the agents in a system. Conditions and features vary, they are variable. Variables of either features or conditions, become connected with one another by the cause and effect relationships.

     The variable that causes a change in another variable is the independent variable and the variable the effect is directed to the dependent variable. The changed dependent variable acts further as an independent variable, and becomes the cause for change in other dependent variables. These, in turn, affect other variables and so on, creating chain reactions that propagate within the state space of a particular system.

     Affected variables change the conditions and features in a system. The system undergoes a transformation. The transformation is either linear or non-linear. Whether a certain transformation is linear or non-linear is consequent to the position of the independent variable in the dependency hierarchy. The lower in the hierarchy the independent variable is, the greater the transformation effected upon the state of the system, as it will affect a great many variables in the chain-wise fashion, and the greater the effect, the greater the transformation, a greater amount of change. It is described as an exponential function and in a graph is drawn, not with a straight line but with a curved line, a hyperbola, therefore the non-linear term.

     Linear transformation takes place when the independent variable is found higher in the dependency hierarchy of variables in a system therefore it affects a smaller number of variables, a limited effect, a smaller size of transformation. In a graph its effect is shown by a straight line, a linear transformation. Most of the transformations in real life phenomena are linear transformations.

     The linear or non-linear mode of transformation effected by interacting variables is universal and apply to all systems in each end of the scale, from the microscales to the macroscales. John Gribbin mentions about the expansion of the Universe: "That, today the Universe is expanding at a more or less steady rate, in a linear fashion. It is like a walk down the road, in which each step takes you the same distance as the previous step. But in the very early Universe, the scalar fields that we have mentioned caused exponential expansion. This is like taking a walk in which the second step takes you twice as far as the first step, the third step four times as far, the fourth step eight times as far, and so on".
     So in a linear transformation, the dependent variable matches step by step the independent variable whereas in the non-linear transformation a step in the independent variable can be matched by hundreds of steps by the dependent variable.


     In our lives this can be seen in the events that surround the beginning of romantic relationships as is accompanied by excitement anticipation and fervour, when we first meet the person we start a relationship with, the non-linear phase. Later on as this is followed by a settling down period, we enter the linear phase. If at the weekend we stay home and relax then we are content being in a linear state, whereas if we go out have fun and enjoy ourselves we enter the non-linear phase. We always make choices in life in what path to follow, linear or non-linear; what mode to engage into at any time. We lead either linear or non-linear lives.

Thursday 10 May 2007

Pinpointing phenomena and states

     Multitude of states. Phenomena are, what we experience as the development of states. Phenomenon describes how states came to be, or come about. Phenomenon description contains the features, the rules, and the states that result by the application of the rules. An agent, (in the case of "adapting chaos in our lives", the individual), applies, follows, enforces the rules. Agents, in the case of chemical reactions, are the atoms, and the atoms are the entities that follow the rules, as they interact with one another. The features in this case, are the electrons in their outer electron shell, which represent the conditions. Are these the conditions? And what about heat, pressure, concentration? Are these not, the conditions? Certainly they are. Can we refer to the features of: outer electron shells, atom size, isotopes as conditions? Certainly not. Conditions refer to the state of the environment, where the agent acts in, whereas features, to the state of the agent. Both can be described by variables. Conditions are continuous variables, taking values within a given range and features are discontinuous variables, discrete states, constants just as parameters are defined. A calium atom has for example two electrons in the outer electron shell, a given atom size. These are stable values, do not commute, the state configuration presented by that particular agent, the calcium atom.

     How can these premises be transferred to other phenomena? What would represent features and what conditions in weather phenomena, people's relationship systems, or personality constructs? Can conditions and features be both present in the weather system, for example. Conditions are easily discerned as the temperature, water content, altitude; and they are continuous. But what would constitute features? And what are the agents? Hard, not easily discerned. I need more information. That can lead to the conclusion that agent presence is not necessary for the occurrence of chaos phenomena, if I can not distinguish agents and features. Of course, a weather system involves air molecules; or not only, as other molecules are involved too. Water molecules as well as dust, all mixed up to form fluid, confined within a vast but nevertheless finite space. These certainly can be regarded as agents, and the features presented by these agents, along with rules directing interactions, are responsible for the weather phenomena.

     Are these the only features? What else? What about the space, all these molecules are included in. Or regions of space, as weather phenomena are developing locally. Would it be then, more spread out, parameters that have to do with features presented as masses of air molecules and not as single molecules. Molecule-population-connected features, which once the population of molecules reaches an adequate size, it presents the features, becomes the agent, which responds to the existing, prevailing conditions and develops, in the states described by the phenomena of rain, wind, storm, hurricane.


What about phenomena of personality constructs?


     What would be the conditions, the features, the agents? Certainly the main candidate for agent is the individual itself. But when we are talking about personality, it is a structure based on that very same individual, that we assume as agent. Can it be possible to have an agent that acts upon itself? The space where all these activity takes place, within it? Features, yes, we can discern. But what about rules? What are the rules that the agent, within the agent follows? What is personality for that matter? Everything that defines us as a person. How good we are at things that we do, what makes us tick, what triggers our emotions, to what extent our emotions are expressed, how tuned we are to changes around us. OK, that's enough. Can we discern any agent among these, any carrier, rules followed? Any features? Rules must be simple. Features must be stable, discreet variables, given parameters. There are features, all these genetically determined qualities, imprinted in our genomes.

     But how can genes determine features? That can act as agent features? Let us consider about how good we are at things we do. Depending on the task to do, we take a different approach. If the task is physical, it requires dexterity of hands, arms, legs and dexterity is determined by genes. We are equipped by birth, with abilities which we make use, to accomplish physical tasks. In the same way we handle mental tasks, which again depend on the level of ability, as dictated by genes responsible for the construction of our brain, brain mechanisms, the neurons, the nerve cells.

     Neurons, and not only, as they act as groups of neurons, each group with a specific task at hand. Can we say that these groups of neurons, are the agents; with stable features, discreet, given parameters, non-commutable that define a state, the state of our mind? Our mind presents different aspects, mental planes, each mind aspect, a component of mind is brought about, out of the physical interactions, of their designated neuron groups. And mind, the whole, out of the interactions of its component aspects, along with the associated neuron groups.

     And there, there are the features, the stable, discreet, non-commutable and genetically determined. And these are, the neuron firing patterns, firing threshold of neuron, neuron fatigue, degree of development of specialised regions of the brain (themselves neuron groups) all genetically determined and stable. Do the groups of neurons constitute the agent? Can we say that our personality is constructed by the interaction of groups of neurons? What about the conditions?

     The continuous variables, the environment within which the agent acts? If the groups of neurons are regarded as agents, then the environment is our brain itself. The internal conditions that affect our brain mechanisms. The level of oxygen, of glucose, of neurotransmitters, of sodium and potassium ions. Their presence or absence, their concentration, as they are regulated by diet as well as by the different situations an individual finds itself in. As the internal environment mirrors the external environment, in a specific manner for each indiviual, as it reflects its genetically determined features of neuron activity.

     So there, these are the features and conditions that determine personality constructs and influence people's relationships. But what about rules? .....

Wednesday 9 May 2007

Act in comedy series operate under chaos directives

     abc1 sitcom comedy "Less than perfect" episode, Lydia's (played by Andrea Parker) and Jeb's (played by Patrick Warburton) relationship reaches breakpoint when innuendos about imaginary dates shake each other emotionally and physically, leaving both shattered, as each other's comments, about going-out on dates with other people, undermines their system of beliefs, by creating shifts on the initial conditions upon which the system of their relationship has been built.

      Life situations tinkering with chaos determinants as the punts, the innuendos, the jibes, are targeted to shake up the initial conditions each has established its personality structure around, a bona fide system by itself, entitled to the same treatment as hard-edged systems as the weather, by the all-including chaos principles of universality and self-similarity. The shattering of their relationship structure similar to hurricane development in a weather system, symmetry of large to small scales, as both cases respond violently to minute changes in the initial conditions.