Clarifying a Two-state Pattern Language of 64 Modalities

TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 12 Aug 2024

Anthony Judge | Laetus in Praesens - TRANSCEND Media Service

Developing an AI-enabled Methodology to Reframe Binary Bias

Introduction

12 Aug 2024 – This is written in a period in which there are major ongoing conflicts, most obviously with respect to Israel-Palestine and Russia-Ukraine, but less obviously in other arenas. Citizens of other countries are being advised to leave Lebanon in anticipation of major conflict and its probable escalation in the Middle East. As is typical of such conflicts, each side and its supporters, frames its own cause as unquestionably righteous and that of the other as the epitome of wrong doing — possibly meriting repressive legislative measures, and potentially to be qualified as “evil” (Existence of evil as authoritatively claimed to be an overriding strategic concern, 2016; Framing by others of claimants of evil as evil, 2016). There is no lack of authoritative references to the “Axis of Evil“, with the implication that the recognition is necessarily made from the perspective of an “Axis of Good” (Ensuring Dynamics of Sustainability by Appreciative Recognition of Evil, 2022).

More curiously however, there is little academic or diplomatic capacity to address and transcend that polarization of perspective — and seemingly little motivation to do so. The divisiveness now permeates the social fabric in many countries, rendering highly problematic any fruitful dialogue on such matters. The situation is well-described in Biblical prophecy: They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. (Luke 12:53).

The pattern is curiously echoed in the considerable controversy regarding gender identity — challenging assumptions regarding the binary male-female distinction, most obviously as it applies in the current Olympic Games. The opening ceremony of the latter aroused such controversy regarding gender-related aesthetics and symbolism that recordings of it have had to be withdrawn. The number of gender identities is now alleged to be far greater than previously believed (Shaziya Allarakha, What Are the 72 Other Genders? MedicineNet, 9 February 2024).

The following exercise is the development of a previous argument regarding understanding of “two-state” from a geopolitical perspective (Reframing “Two-State” Possibilities, 2024). As in that exercise, the question is whether binary categories can be explored more fruitfully, notably through generic articulation exemplified by a 64-fold pattern. As in that case, the method relied significantly on interaction with AIs — previously with both ChatGPT and Claude, but primarily with Claude alone in this case pattern. Ironically this pattern can be seen as the extreme development of a binary methodology.

Rather than focusing on a binary pattern, the exercises explore an 8-fold pattern as the basis for an 8×8 pattern into which it can be experimentally articulated — with the speculative aid of AI. In the quest for a generic understanding of such a pattern, and its cognitive implications, the experiment draws upon Eastern understandings of 8-fold and 64-fold patterns and endeavors to relate them to analogous Western patterns recognized by science (Coherent Reconciliation of Eastern and Western Patterns of Logic, 2023). One unexpected initial result of the previous exercise was the capacity of AI to articulate (if only speculatively) a 64-fold pattern of two-state geopolitical conditions with a provisional indication of examples inviting critical commentary. This is reproduced here as an introduction to the subsequent development of that methodology.

In contrast to the typical binary framing of the “right way” in contrast with the “wrong way”, reference is made in what follows to 8-fold ways recognized in both East and West — recognizing the more extensive articulation of the pattern in the East, insofar as the implication for governance have been acknowledged. Reference is therefore made to the 64-fold pattern of the I Ching — a required text of governance in past centuries in China, and variously deemed of continuing relevance (Jaymee Ng, Leadership Wisdom of the I-Ching, China Business Knowledge, 15 September 2022; Geoffrey Redmond and Tze-ki Hon, The Yijing as China Enters the Modern Age, 2014). Despite its mathematical sophistication as an inspiration for binary computing, this is typically disparaged by Western science as a work of “divination“. The irony is the current heavy dependence of Western governments on the predictive capacity of “modelling” (Matthew Gwynfryn Thomas, The Age of Digital Divination, Sapiens, 7 December 2021; Meet the Sentient World Simulation: how the government predicts the future, July 2024). This uncritical dependence is evident despite its problematic aspects (Misleading Modelling of Global Crises, 2021; Perspectives of AI on Psychosocial Implications of Global Modelling, 2024).

The concern here derives from inadequately explored cognitive and strategic patterns of organization, specifically the comparison of integrated multi-set concept schemes as forms of presentation (Dynamics of N-fold Integration of Disparate Cognitive Modalities, 2021; Patterns of N-foldness, 1980). The challenge they represent is seen as related to contrasting cognitive modalities (Interrelating Multiple Ways of Looking at a Crisis, 2021).

The question of concern may be reframed in terms of the unexplained “satisfaction” with classification system patterns — exemplified by the Dewey Decimal Classification, the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC), and the Information Coding Classification (ICC) — despite limited concern with their systemic or cognitive significance, and the implications in terms of problematic strategic articulation and uptake. Especially ironic with respect to the following argument is the unexplained use by the Mathematics Subject Classification of a 64-fold pattern of mathematical disciplines labeled with a unique two-digit number. As a consequence of these concerns, the ICC was an inspiration for the elaboration of an Integrative Matrix of Human Preoccupations (1980) — extensively used for the interlinked datasets of the online Yearbook of International Organizations and the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential.

Given the comprehensive scope of such information tools, the concern is then whether and how their organization might be presented otherwise in order to enhance their comprehensibility and relevance to challenges of governance — especially in the light of the unfortunate binary bias, and in contrast to the insights of general systems research and knowledge cybernetics (Maurice Yolles, Knowledge Cybernetics: a new metaphor for social collectives, Journal of Organisational Transformation and Social Change, 3, 2006, 1)

In such a context it is appropriate to ask how “two state” is understood and evoked — and especially by whom and through what disciplinary lens. Given the apparent incapacity of those disciplines claiming unique relevance to reframing the challenge to civilization of “Israel-Palestine” — in a manner which evokes “new thinking” — it could be asked how “discipline” is then to be understood. Does a discipline simply provide the justification for what its practitioners are entitled to ignore in the execution of their profession? Given the specificity through which they define themselves, can disciplines even “think” in “global” terms — when faced with global crises? Do the disciplines claiming such relevance engage in any root cause analysis of their apparent ineptitude? Ironically such questions justify the use of AI in their clarification (Mathematical Modelling of Silo Thinking in Interdisciplinary Contexts, 2024).

Given the apparent inability of “Western” inspired disciplines to inform mediation of the Gaza situation, it is intriguing to note the current initiative from an “Eastern” perspective (Laurie Chen and Nidal Al-Mughrabi, China brokers Palestinian unity deal, but doubts persist , Reuters, 24 July 2024; Mohamad Zreik, China Mediates a New Era of Palestinian Unity, The Diplomat, 25 July 2024 ). This could be considered consistent with Coherent Reconciliation of Eastern and Western Patterns of Logic (2023) — a study facilitated by AI commentary. Ironically it is of course the case that China is faced with its own “two-state” challenge, as with the Koreas.

In addition to the reframing of a geopolitical variant of constrained binary thinking, the method is applied experimentally to other polarities constraining global discourse. These include right-wrong (good-evil / innocence-guilt), problem-solution, and love-hate (like-dislike). Following its replacement of the UN’s 8-fold Millennium Development Goals, the experiments suggest a reframing of the UN’s 16+1 pattern of Sustainable Development Goals and their relation to the associated 169 “tasks” (Systemic Coherence of the UN’s 17 SDGs as a Global Dream — rather than merely an arbitrary outcome of political horse-trading, 2021).

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