'Our broken sticks' c/o Roger Lewin "Complexity: life at the edge of chaos"

Chapter 4 Explosions and Extinctions

  'Is Stu being led astray? I asked. "There's something called the broken stick model in statistics," said Dave. In this trick, a random number generator "breaks'' a stick a hundred inches long at twenty-five points, and produces twenty-six short sticks. Measure them, count the number that are one inch long, the number two inches long, and so on, and draw a histogram. You get a skewed distribution, toward the short end, just like many natural phenomena, including the distribution of sizes of U.S. cities, for instance. "One thing you have to remember about extinctions is that some species are more likely than others to die out, just because they exist as small, isolated populations,'' explained Dave. "This sort of statistical quirk can skew your results, easily." So, you would be suspicious of anything that looks like a power law? "I would, because it's common, just in the nature of statistics. It may tell you that a system is poised at a critical point, whatever that means, but it may not. In any case, when Stu says that the curve he gets from my data is close to a power law, he knows that there are many other mathematical models that could fit equally well."
  Clearly, there were many reasons to be cautious about drawing the conclusion that global ecosystems are poised at the edge of chaos, using just the extinction data.' p.80.

 

Hodges' model: Axes (structure) and Domains (content)

If we take the axes of Hodges' model, and break them at twenty-five points, I wonder what we end-up (or start) with?

 

Lewin, Roger. (1993) Complexity: life at the edge of chaos. London : Phoenix [Dent, 1993] ISBN: 1857990285.

Previously: 'complexity' : 'system'

Conference 2023: Religious Experience and the Phenomenology of Nature

Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience

The Theme of the Conference

Faced as we are with climate change, mass extinctions of species, global pandemics, there is probably no more pressing theme today than that of nature. It is, however, not at all clear what we mean by ‘nature’, and whether discourse about nature is even meaningful today. Many speak of the ‘death of nature’ while at another extreme we find the exhortation toward a ‘re-enchantment’ of [by] nature. What the conference aims to explore is the place of religious experience within this our current situation.

Nature philosophy, including environmental ethics, but also the revival in Schellingian themes and the rediscovery within Phenomenology of the question of nature (Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger, Husserl), questions any unidirectional subject/object relation to nature. Nature is that in which we find ourselves as human beings and despite our molding of our environments, according to such a view, the human engagement with the world itself embodies nature. The emphasis on embodiment shows not alone the limits of dualisms, but also the commonality of the human with the natural world in which we are and breathe. The inter-subjective experience of such being in nature and the inter-corporeal being with animals and plants around us is reflected in the sacramentality of religious observance from totemic rituals to the Christian Eucharist.

Inspired by the overcoming of dualisms of body and mind and nature and freedom deriving from the Phenomenology and Schelling, we can re-examine the religious sense of nature as containing sacredness. This religious sense can be understood metaphysically as an intuition of reality appearing as unapproachable. Phenomenologically, the question as to the source of this sense of the inapproachable and sacred can be understood in terms of feelings of awe (e.g., Otto). Not alone can nature be a source or locus of religious experience, but it may also be the case that religious affectivity gives us access to nature beyond the objectifying and instrumentalizing tendencies of Modernity. In this respect, we can think of the phenomenologies of life (Bergson, Tymieniecka, Henry), which explore modes of appearance of nature beyond the dualities of mechanism and vitalism. These accounts draw on – explicitly or implicitly – religious motifs such Christian notion of life as Christ, Vedantic life as Sat (Truth of Being, identical with self-consciousness and fullness), or Islamic God as truth or reality (al-Haqq), as well as other concepts across many traditions which are connecting life and nature. These motifs can be understood as compatible with the growing movement of panpsychism in the philosophy of mind (Strawson, Goff, Chalmers, Nagel) and the philosophy of life in biology (Varela, Maturana, Wilson).

Living through a pandemic it is important to hear [here?] attend to the core meaning of the word – pan demos, concerning all the people. Just as nature is everywhere, so any discourse about dwelling in nature (eco-logy) must be seen to concern the totality of human experience, in the sense of the full richness of its diversity. One manner in which such diverse experience can be understood is the way in which nature is experienced as a temporal phenomenon. This is clear already in the experience of the cyclicality of the seasons. It is also manifest in the current sense of ecological crisis which draws on a religious sensibility that has remained present in different guises through Modernity, namely the eschatological. In attempting to think nature with respect to religious experience, we are thinking within the intersection of temporal strands: mortal time, conscious time, cyclical, indefinite time, eternal, creative ‘time’. Understood eschatologically or messianically this relation is one in which ending is woven into the fabric of time: time as ending, transforming of past in the present and the opening up of a new future, time of forgiveness, repentance, grace and judgement (kairos)."

Details continued ...

Attending online, presentation to follow and suffice to say I'm out of my comfort zone - which is good.

I inquired at first whether introducing Hodges' model might be of interest, as ever, related to the conference's themes. To help establish my context, for the event organisers I attached the paper: "Exploring Serres’ Atlas: Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons". 

There was delay in my hearing more and acceptance being confirmed. I wish I could attend in-person, but am grateful for the opportunity - both to participate and be green. The paper's title is listed in the programme under: Anthropology and Informatics on the first day. Although the paper isn't the session, it fits well as a starting point. More to follow ...

Endangered - so many things ...

INDIVIDUAL

|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

	Songs of Disappearance
Musics Lost and Found

Musics Lost and Found image:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Musics-Lost-Found-Collectors-Tradition/dp/178327607X

My source:

Lagan, B. Endangered birds on song in album chart, The Times, December 21, 2021, p.43.

Hewett, I. Your mission: to find the most endangered song in the world, Books, The Daily Telegraph, 30 October 2021, p.18.

Ecovisionaries: The Royal Academy - Nov 23 - Feb 23 2020

Late autumn I received news of an exhibition that sounded right-up my street - down in London.

Eco-Visionaries at The Royal Academy.

Without wishing to sound grandiose, I see myself as an 'eco-visionary' in several respects:

• yes, as a white, middle-class male and would-be environmental do-gooder;
• yes, as this is the perspective that Hodges' model fosters;
• yes, because now we all need to be eco-visionaries.

As this post's title shows, the exhibition had a short run. Probably a norm in London, but from the NW of England not straightforward but then there was great news and a golden opportunity.

The RA was organising a symposium:

Confronting a Planet in a State of Emergency: Eco-Visionaries Symposium

Sat 22 Feb, 10am-6pm

From futuristic visualisations of a world without humans, to innovative ways of measuring toxicity in cities, creative research into the climate crisis is proving essential for imagining solutions. Join us for a full day of presentations and discussions looking at how we can protect and understand our environment now and in the future. 

And! There was a call for abstracts. Just the thought of a symposium makes me go wobbly, so could I imagine this: actually being an eco-visionary and presenting at the RA! Goodness me.


On twitter I read of many people's efforts to present and publish. I've tried for the Planetary Health event and been unsuccessful but will try again. To those people who try, I say: If you've a message, a resource - keep trying.

Previously on W2tQ [ Waste not, want not ... ], I recycled an 'Item for discussion' that was not accepted last year for RCN Congress, so once again:

Abstract:

In healthcare we are and must be in permanent readiness for emergency situations. Education, continuing professional development, theory and practice are all predicated on lifelong learning and safety. Triage is applied in a practised, reflex manner. This paper will explain how we can better critique the climate emergency and debate solutions using a resource created in healthcare. Healthcare must not only respond to extreme levels of demand, but it is itself demanding. Practitioners and learners must provide safe, high quality care; which must be holistic to achieve a person-centred focus, a positive lived-experienced and integrated outcome. Health is a dedicated Social Development Goal (3), this paper reveals a map of all seventeen.

Despite the proclamations of technophiles, technology alone cannot deliver solutions, a socio-technical perspective is essential. Health and health care systems achieve this by being situated. The climate change emergency highlights not just the interdependency of people to the-ir environment, but the biosphere as a whole. We take health for granted until something goes 'wrong' and now the weather is 'wrong'. This paper addresses: “Creative approaches to conveying information on climate change, air pollution or other environmental issues” but can potentially represent all the symposium's themes. Does this matter? It does in terms of finding not only solutions, but reconciling socio-economic, political groups, global dependencies, issues and vested interests.

The environment needs nursing now.

Health professions will not take kindly to the 'system' placing the climate crisis at their feet and proclaiming “triage this!” Ironically, (bar mass-extinction events) since life emerged the 'system' that really matters is self-regulating. The first example of self-care is vested in Gaia. Eco-vision calls for vision of scale. This paper will share a care architecture worthy of eco-vision and the visionaries we must all aspire to be ...

Title:

A Unique Space: a Care Architecture for Person, Population and a Planet

I'm sure the above can be re-purposed, since alas, it was also unsuccessful. I knew the chances were slim. Hearing the speakers and panel discussions, this is clearly their forte and all very well qualified as Eco-Visionaries. The organisers were very gracious and encouraging, which helped to temper the disappointment. I was offered a complimentary place at the symposium and and was informed there would be Q&A, so I would have chance to highlight the model behind the abstract.

I arrived in London on the Thursday before and visited the exhibition Friday 21st - the last day. It was stimulating, challenging, thought-provoking and upsetting - a video of a giraffe being shot. If shock was the intention: it worked.

With a white rhino in the exhibition and an elephant in the lecture theatre called 'COVID' the symposium appeared full the day after.

I will defer to The Guardian's Oliver Wainwright's review of the exhibition:

Eco-Visionaries review – the salt flats will die and the jellyfish shall rise

I asked several questions / raised points at the symposium, but I suspect for many of us the weeks and months of disruption since disrupted the positive momentum that I at least left with - which is a pity.

I hope the RA Architecture team re-visit this theme. Not so much that I can try to submit again, but more to perfect the technique of framing Hodges' model within a question.

The exhibition and symposium were very good for learning and I really appreciate the opportunity to attend.

Eco-Visionaries: Confronting a planet in a state of emergency c/o Royal Academy

Discover how architects, artists and designers are responding today to some of the most urgent ecological issues of our times.

"From climate change to species extinction and resource depletion, the damaging effects of modern life are more tangible than ever. Eco-Visionaries examines humankind’s impact on the planet and presents innovative approaches that reframe our relationship with nature. Through film, installation, architectural models and photography, the works in this exhibition interrogate how architecture, art and design are reacting to a rapidly changing world, beyond mainstream notions of sustainability.

In the 1950s, scientists started raising serious concerns about the damaging effects of modern life on the environment. Since then, architects, designers and artists have joined the urgent effort to draw attention to the planet’s fragile and endangered ecosystem."

Royal Academy - source and continued ...

Planning to visit the exhibition and related event in February.


Previously posted:
Thursday, October 15, 2009

Blog Action Day: Imagine a generation taking nothing for granted from the start

Book: "Poems from the Edge of Extinction"

 individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group - population

	"One language is falling silent every two weeks. Half of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today will be lost by the end of this century".
Poems from the Edge of Extinction

Chris McCabe

My source:
Crawford, M. (2019) Poetry, Books, FT Weekend Life&Arts, 21-22 Sepember, p.11.