.. going through life, on an automatic pilot.

In, Chapter 'Structures', Paragraph 1.4, in Smith, R. D. (1998) 'Social Structures and Chaos Theory'

"Despite the fact this definition is nearly 30 years old it is sufficiently expressive of what most social scientists actually believe to be deemed 'intuitively clear'. Most researchers talk of such social-structural phenomena as 'class', 'ses', 'family', 'household', 'babyboomers', 'Xers', 'ethnic groups', 'minorities', 'women', 'homosexuals', 'races', 'castes' and so on without much further thought."


.. without much further thought, it donned to me, how cannot be any thing else? Automations. We are going through life, on an automatic pilot. Part and parcel of the program followed, becomes ingrained into our mind, solidifies, consolidates. And one morning, when the conditions, our program is set to deal with, cease to be, while fully on the autopilot mode, drives us into despair.

Our whole life crumples around us in ruins. Our lives scattered. Chaos? When we stick thoughtlessly to our automatic pilot? Is that becoming of the human individual?

Mundane approaches and paradigm shifts in societies

In the post "Paradigm Shift: Changing the Human Experience", of the Rain City Guide website, in Comment 66 from ARDELL it mentions


"For the most part, tipping points do come from the mundane approach, as it takes masses of people to shift, in order for the behavior to “tip” in a new direction."

There is something, the word profound comes into my mind, hidden in this excerpt. I would feed it in my chaotic mind and see what it will come up with.

Talking about paradigm shifts, in social norms, modes of behaviour, ways of dealing with stuff. The problems individuals face in life. Problems that seek a solution. In seek for solutions.

Certainly, a solution, an alternative way to deal with problems, might already be there. It exists. It has been discovered. But to no avail.

'mundane'

Why it sticks into my mind? There should be something there. Mundane, as something that is already there, and it is repeated on and on. Routines that have been adopted and followed, even faithfully for that matter. It hardly provides any room for change. It is not a fertile ground for changes. Certainly, does not excite individuals involved, that are participating in such an approach, as they undertake the tasks involved. I would even say that the individuals are trapped, within narrow boundaries. Limiting in a manner, their expression.

Still, 'mundane' is powerful as by itself, in right or wrong ways, is what holds societies compact. All the processes involved, adhered steadfastly by individuals, give the necessary momentum, provide the 'body' that despite where the processes lead to, to useful or useless goals or something in between, nevertheless build solid structures.

Solid structures, the necessary fiber, the glue that holds societies intact as the time goes by. Mundane processes incorporating the dynamics necessary to preserve continuity through time.

And the 'tipping points', changes introduced while maintaining the structures, the 'body' being kept intact, need to be adopted individually out of informed approaches, countless acts of assessing, weighing, trying, testing and re-testing
as 'it takes masses of people to shift', so the final(?) 'tip' would come, I would say, effortlessly, as if by itself, without major upheavals

Revolution at the level of the single individual, small 'revolutions' introduced within the wider context of societies, the essence of chaos. The minute changes in an individual effects changes on the initial conditions of the systems 'societies', and by sensitive dependence 'tips' societal behaviour in a new direction.

Today's societies enormous. Minute changes. The change adopted at the level of a single individual 'tips' the behaviour of society in a new direction

The paradigm shift effected.

Up to the point that everything that what was held steadfastly in the past is abandoned, forgotten and thrown overboard,

The society never looks back.

How a change in the single individual takes place? In the same way that it takes place in the context of the system society. The individual with its very own initial conditions assessed, effects the small changes, and by sensitive dependence is carried through at the level of its overall behaviour, broadly based on chaos self-similarity principle.

What represents its behaviour, a net daunting in its complexity on its own merit, within the system, the very own individual is. And the individual, a fundamental sub-system of the system society, the foundations of any system or several systems that all together make up the system society. Each system that exists, with its very own set of mundane procedures. But, as well with its initial conditions, the sensitive dependence and chaos.

Chaos is mayhem and destruction? No.

Posts relevant

"The stage is set"
"The end of free-market fundamentalism"
"My first lecture in Berkeley!"
"The End Of Free-Market Fundamentalism"
"Not recommended: frantically seeking escape from a chaotic situation, we find ourselves in."
"Throwing overboard relentlessly whatever is remotely connected with what is not agreed now."
"Imperfect kinds of consciousness"

If once more, I hear or read on chaos and chaotic conditions or situations in that manner I will explode.

Referring to chaos as synonym to mayhem and destruction and ignoring the fact that, this is a result, of our limited perspectives, every human individual's limited perspective. We should not attribute as chaos, what our obvious inability to asses any situations in their widest breadth and furthest depth ever, brings forth.

An inability which even comes out from the comment of Philippe, in the post 'My first lecture in Berkeley!'of 'Au bout de l'ouest / Running out of west' website,

"If you look at the quote by Poincaré (arguably the person who introduced the concept of chaos without naming it that way) I put in the text, it's clear that he takes an epistemological point of view compared to Laplace's "omniscient being" point of view (which is not that much useful for the actual practice of science with finite means of inquiry)."

Human individuals obviously suffering from an "omniscient being" syndrome, which drives them to assume the product of their senses and the information gathered, limited as is, as an absolute and unequivocal view of the world and ignore that as individuals, we have 'finite means of inquiry', which is even reflected in the way we practice science.

That, what we take as chaos, it is merely apparent, as our brains can not take in, everything there is out there. What is described and taken as chaos is a result of our very limited views for almost everything that unfolds around us.

Whereas, as it is pointed out in the same comment

"Another way you can see it is that if you believe the world is deterministic, "randomness" doesn't exist per se. True randomness would mean, for example, that the state of some object in the future is totally uncorrelated with its present state. Chaotic systems give the appearance of randomness, because there is a time in the future where our uncertainty in our knowledge of the present (no matter how small it is, as long as it's larger than 0) will prevent us from seeing any correlations."

the randomness which is a common theme, in the view of chaos as mayhem and destruction, 'doesn't exist per se', as states of objects, any object, are correlated with their states in the past, and the future states are correlated with their present states. That chaotic systems give the appearance of randomness, exacerbated by the enormity of objects around us, building up a complexity that our minds cannot fathom, a complexity out of countless processes and objects, which we can only 'see', understand, make it meaningful to us, a very limited portion. What is referred to, as 'our uncertainty in our knowledge of the present' which 'prevent us from seeing any correlations'.

Assuming such a stance towards chaos, accentuates helplessness, reduce ourselves, our capacity to provide solutions to any problems, to whatever size or implications in every aspect of our lives, our societies, the world at large.

Or even drive people, in groups or individually, to seek just another saviour of humanity whereas the only saviour that exists, is the very own human individual, himself or herself. An endeavour which dilutes and weakens the strength of any messages passed to wider circles, or any goals sought for, despite how worthwhile they might be.

Not recommended: frantically seeking escape from a chaotic situation, we find ourselves in.

What powers the rise of emergent properties?


Not recommended: frantically seeking for a way to escape from a chaotic situation, we find ourselves in. Prey to our emotions. Looking for a quick getaway.

As I read through the paper 'Chaos-assisted tunneling in dielectric microcavities', by Viktor A. Podolskiy* and Evgenii E. Narimanov, stating that the asymmetric microcavities introduced chaotic orbits. After some deliberations that notion had been associated in my mind, with what I read in the National Science Foundation MRSC declaration of a research program on 'Emergent Properties Resulting from Constraints'. That goes along with what I was contemplating about the significance of incompatible forces in instantiating emergent properties in systems. States, objects, processes, systems that emerge endowed with novel properties?

That, as in the case of the microlasers studied by Viktor A. Podolskiy* and Evgenii E. Narimanov, lead to chaos-assisted quantum tunneling and drastically changes lifetimes and emission patterns of produced rays. All made possible from the constraints imposed by using asymmetric instead of circular resonators.

And in the case brought forward by the MRSC research program, the confinement of macromolecules in cells, to very small and crowded volumes having major consequences for structure and dynamics. Or the effect of chirality, the concept behind the reason why a left-handed glove does not fit on a right hand, frustrates long range order in both crystals and membranes, resulting in new structures, with the implications of the second effect of chirality, that leads to finite self-limiting self-assembled structures, still to be contemplated.

All cases where imposed constraints introduce chaos, and result in chaos created novel objects, that emerge as attractors. A theme similar to what we are going through in our daily lives. A notion along the lines of the self-similarity principle in chaotically developed systems.

There is not a day passing, without finding ourselves squeezed, cornered, tested by constraints of any sort imposed upon our selves. That is when chaos undertakes the task to pull us through. It is why, we are never really trapped, as we always find a way out or there is a way out.

However, our first instinctive move is to escape from the offensive situation. A sterile approach. We leave our emotions full reign to direct our actions and in doing so we loose the chance to take stock of the solutions chaos unravels before us. Overwhelmed by our emotions, we are incapable of distilling out of the chaotic situation the lessons to be taught out of the rich bed of solutions on offer. The novel properties of the emerged state. Succumbing to the urge laid down by emotions, nagging problems will continue to scourge the individual.

The human mind is equipped to deal with such situations ... situations where a quick, fast solution is required. It uses our quantum mechanical computation processes based upon the quantum mechanical superposition principle.

Should enter the chaotic situation and learn from it.

Time-constraints and emotion-led considerations in the unfounded fear of chaos by individuals

Uncharted draft thoughts on the inexplicable fear of chaotic by individuals.

"A draft Housing Law intended to halt chaotic development and stabilise the real estate market was introduced to the Nation."

this statement in LuatViet.com, an advocates and solicitors firm from Vietnam, struck me as a misnomer, in the way I see it. Why would the meaning coming out from that sentence feel odd to me? To halt chaotic development? As far as I could say, individuals should not wish to halt chaotic development as chaotically developed states are the ones that explore all possible arrangements and provide the solutions someone seeks for. Halting chaotic development you stop a tool with which you explore a given field. Without that tool you would not be able to develop the appropriate solutions for the problem at hand.

Chunks of time for a chaotic development to devolve, chunks which might exceed the expectations of time limits as perceived by the individuals involved. The attention of individuals need to span through the length of time a chaotic state development require to fulfill its goal, the attractors final states to which they lead to. The widely discomforting feeling individuals are grabbed with, is when they find themselves within the transitory stage of the developing chaotic situation, what is referred to as being amidst the chaos, as emotions run high.

The main concern is to make sure that the initial conditions are kept intact as the desired final state, the attractors to be reached dictate. Further, while in the process of developing should make sure that the objectives are not compromised.

Certainly the time evolution that development takes might not follow the time evolution of the individuals involved. It would take time for the appropriate attractors to emerge. Time which might even be more even from the life cycle of human lives could span. And certainly, while in that transitory stage, what the individuals experience is confusing and disheartening. What one experiences and attributes as chaotic. But that view is shortsighted and largely prone to interference by emotionally triggered factors. It clouds judgment, as individuals are oriented towards satisfying short-term goals.

The chaotic development looked as a whole? A whole that is unfolding not in space but in time? States ever changing till they reach a level that can be called final states? Final states that can be desirable or undesirable? Their course determined by the parametres, and specifically the values of the parametres at the start of their evolution? Parameters, and values of parametres that define the initial conditions? And the chaotic development undergoes by following the dictum of sensitive dependence, in the initial conditions?

Laws devised should set the parameter values defining the initial conditions which, after the chaotic development will lead to the final states which are deemed as desirable? The sought up attractors? The chaotic progress checked while is developing by measuring the convergence or divergence towards the final states? The final states being the desirable states and would represent the goals sought? Take into account a measure based in the concept of the Lyapunov exponents?

Seeking out chaotic development is paramount. Once the goals are set, laws, their sole aim, should be introduced to set the stage, the initial conditions. Laws should be clear and adhere to the objectives put forth. Any other approach will compromise the development of the sought after chaotic attractors.

As in this page is stated

"The National Assembly passed the Law on the Real Estate Business on June 21. Under the law, to take effect on January 1, 2007, individuals, organisations, foreigners and overseas Vietnamese will be authorised to offer real estate services including brokerage and agency, appraisal, marketing, and consultancy."

the provision of the relevant services have no bounds. In an open world, service providers come from everywhere.

However, the stipulations in the laws about the requirements of the individuals seeking to participate in this field

"Article 50 provides that an individual who wants to be granted a broker’s license shall (i) have full civil act capacity, (ii) be trained in real estate brokerage, and (iii) submit a dossier to the provincial People’s Committee."

and

"The requirements for becoming licensed as a real estate appraiser are higher, including: (i) full civil act capacity, (ii) training in real estate appraisal, (iii) a college or university degree, and (iv) submission of a dossier to the provincial People’s Committee."

are interpretable in so many ways, the laws are rendered vague and compromises their effect. Introduce other considerations alien to the goals will hinder the objectives sought after.

The only credential should be required for individuals entering such an enterprise it should be the provision of the service. Certainly Vietnam's desire for a stable housing market should be aware of the pitfalls capitalist economies are writhed with. The greed of the entrepreneurs involved inherent in the capitalist way of thinking. If full civil act capacity and the dossier required to submit to provincial People's Committees aim towards ensuring that the initial conditions necessary for the sought after final states in the chaotic development, are intact, s not clear. Final states where housing becomes available that satisfies the needs of individuals.

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.

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.

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? .....

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.