ANTICIPATION...
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From: Bruce S.
Date: Tuesday, September 18, 2007, 11:12 AM
Subject: Anticipation...
ID: 258507

All of these things continue to coalesce. This "Bridge" is a broad project, with a lot of implications -- and it's going to take time to draw them all together into a single coherent framework.

But I do sense that this is going to happen. The energy seems to be in place, the potential continues to rise. The discovery of all those excellent articles on WikiPedia was very exciting, and convinced me that the "huge task" of reviewing epistemology and the scientific theory of categories is not impossibly overwhelming. This big design -- show the full range of deep intuition, as the spiritual and philosophical roots of this project, plus fully illustrate the technical aspects -- mathematical taxonomy, algebraic semantics, etc. -- began to seem feasible. Somehow, I knew it was possible, that these pieces can come together.

This Bridge design is a "mapping across the levels" -- indeed, a "spectrum of consciousness", to use Ken Wilber's phrase. And what are these levels -- what span or gulf does this bridge cross?

There are so many ways to say this -- and they are all saying the same thing, and we need to say them all -- but one open and simple and clear way -- is to describe this spectrum as the range of thinking that goes from "the absolutely empirical" to "the absolutely universal".

Put another way, in another psychological model -- this span is the range of thinking that interconnects "left brain thinking" with "right brain thinking".

We are starting to know how to do this. We do have an excellent and comprehensive set of precursors -- theories and maps that point the way. Ken Wilber is one of those theorists, and there are many others.

In the late 1980's, when I was being quite academic in my approach to these things, I came across a book called Maps of the Mind - Charts and Concepts of the Mind and its Labyrinths -- and lately, I have been scanning the entire text into .pdf format. Yes, this might involve some copyright issues -- but the book was published in 1981, and is currently out of print -- though excellent copies are available on Amazon (I just bought one).

As a kind of warm-up exercise for this work, I am suggesting this book by Hampden-Turner. You can access what I've got done so far with this, simply by going to this new web domain, http://BridgeAcrossConsciousness.Net

And generally -- let me just quickly sketch out what I think is going to happen here...

***

The first stage in this work, as a kind of philosophical preliminary to something more technical, is a comprehensive review of the intuitive roots of this work. I've been reading some Ken Wilber books lately, including the Spectrum of Consciousness, and he does include a good review of the underlying mystical and historical roots of this "bridge" idea.

I've been making sketches, and putting together some diagrams and strategies.

Essentially, where I think this is going is

• Gather together a detailed review of basic metaphysical, mystical, and philosophic concepts and metaphors that point towards or are "integral models" -- including such things as
  • The Great Chain of Being
  • Axis Mundi
  • Mandala
• Show how these models can be interpreted in terms of more precise analytic models, including approaches such as
  • Hierarchy
  • Tree structures
  • Taxonomy
• Present the idea that the deep mystical intuitions of holistic thinkers can be interpreted as something like metaphors for the more precise analytic models

This approach essentially builds a model from deep intuition to precise analysis. It may be somewhat controversial, in that we are simply speculating and making the claim that the ancient models can be interpreted in terms of the modern concepts. Some people will no doubt argue that this claim is untenable -- but we'll just have to let that be. The case can be made in very strong terms.

Building this kind of framework feels like a strong and important foundation for further research, that incorporates and includes these broader and more holistic intuitions. We are going to be using the language of modern computer science, and building models that are directly in line with database programming and artificial intelligence. But the content we are including involves the deepest spiritual vision ever brought to the human race, by the greatest thinkers and visionaries and mystics who ever lived.

All of this -- continues to come together.

And just to say -- that I do feel that this "Uroboros" -- this "snake swallowing its tail" -- is a metaphor for the algebraic structure that supports and integrates this convergence.

There is a process of the circle closing upon itself, in profound ways that we do not yet entirely see.

But this closing upon itself -- IS "the bridge across consciousness" -- as all the levels of abstraction and conceptualization are held together in a single integral framework.

This, I am guessing and speculating -- will turn out to be the epistemological/hermaneutical foundation of a new integral world, that interconnects the full span of human thinking and understanding, into a single unbroken context.