Bridge Across Consciousness

BRIDGE ACROSS CONSCIOUSNESS - BASIC DIAGRAMS
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From: Bruce Schuman
Date: Saturday, February 23, 2008, 10:19 AM
Subject: Bridge Across Consciousness - Basic Diagrams
Reply to: 262390
ID: 259847

Just by way of quick illustration, I want to include a few basic and simple diagrams, that present this Bridge idea, as a spectrum across levels.

What is this a spectrum "of"? What is this stuff -- these levels? Levels of what?

Are these things something like "energy bands" -- as Ken Wilber suggests in his seminal book "The Spectrum of Consciousness"? Some might say yes -- but for me, this is a slightly misleading approach. What we are talking about is the structure of concepts -- what concepts are made out of, and how they relate to one another -- how they can all be fastened together in one integral framework, in a single and essentially quite simple way.

It will take some time and some careful attention to detail to clarify the meaning of these diagrams -- but very quickly, let me just flash these images across your screen. These are diagrammatic models of essential ideas in the structure of concepts -- which, I argue, can all be understood within the context of a single "taxonomic" framework that links "the many" (on the left side of the spectrum) to "the one" (on the right side of the spectrum).

I am pretty-well-persuaded that all of this is exactly consistent with the best psychological models available, plus the best scientific ideas on the epistemology of concepts -- plus, the actual working logic of computer science and real-world database programming.

These are not vague abstractions. They are an exact map of the structure of cognitive organization, as "big ideas contain little ideas" in a precise and knowable way.

This is a very simple model of the Bridge concept, showing the basic distribution of levels, and introducing the basic dimensionality of the left brain/right brain relationship.

This diagram shows the same basic relationship, also introducing the concept of logic flow across these levels. "Analysis" and "Synthesis" can be illustrated as "opposite directions of logic flow across the spectrum". "Induction" is reasoning from particular concepts to general conclusions, and "Deduction" is reasoning from general principles to particular consequences.

This diagram introduces the concept of "types of variables" -- which can be understood as organized within a hierarchical spectrum. Bigger and more inclusive variables are less specific, more abstract, and potentially contain more information, but that information is implicit. If that implicit quality is not made explicit, then that variable tends to be "fuzzy and vague". This is illustrated by the relationship between "ordinal variables" like "uncomfortable" and "comfortable" -- which can be defined at a lower and more specific level as "very cold", "cold" "cool", "mild", etc., and which can be defined with exact precision at a yet-lower level, in terms of degrees of temperature ("exact measurement").

Finally, all of this can be characterized by a taxonomic model, that shows the relationship of "the many" to "the one" -- as we might see this taxonomy defined in the children's game "Twenty Questions".

And just to add a little further mystery and arcana to this presentation -- just consider how this spectrum might be turned on itself and "closed". That's the "Uroboros", I would say -- the deepest mystery in what we are doing. For me, the question here is simply to get a clear algebraic model of how this taxonomic spectrum closes on itself, to form a sealed unit and a closed circle.