Etymology:
The etymology is
quite surprising.
Latin mergere
: -, ex-, ex- + mergere, to immerse.
I often think of
emerging as to come out of something, not to dive into it.
and of course Pole:
Middle English,
from Old French, from Latin polus, from Greek polos, axis,
Introduction
The following exercise
in thinking about thinking is an effort to identify a higher degree of order
in the set of papers produced by the author in the period from 1962- 2004 (as discussed
separately in Self-reflexive Learnings from Writing, 2004). The focus here is on the set of
value polarities which they may implicitly address -- and how that set could be configured.
For each polarity
tenatively identified polarity below, a selection of papers is given. These may
be directly accessed, except where the year is followed by an asterisk (when only the
bibliographic reference is accessible).
Reflection on the
themes repeatedly explored at different times in the collection of papers on
this site suggests that they might be usefully clustered in terms of particular polarities (rather than
in terms of the 35 themes on the website menu
). This approach is somewhat consistent with that
used by W T Jones (The Romantic Syndrome: Toward a New Method in Cultural
Anthropology and History of Ideas. 1961) and discussed
elsewhere
. As mentioned in the
papers, the emphasis on polarities has also been developed in relation to tensegrity
(
Transcending Duality through Tensional Integrity
, 1978;
Implementing Principles by
Balancing Configurations of Functions
, 1979), value polarities (
1991
), and strategic
dilemmas (
1992
,
1995
), including their mapping (
1992
). Each of the polar topics above
effectively describes, a particular journey that interweaves with others. For that reason, some
items may be listed under more than one polarity.
The approach is
seen as suggesting a methodology that could be applied to other bodies of
work. In a separate paper ( Configuring Conceptual Polarities in
Questing: metaphoric
pointers to self-reflexive coherence
, 2004) the set of polarities is then explored, as a challenge
to comprehension, through a set of complementary metaphors that may usefully point to the
nature of that higher order. The metaphors are then used to clarify the nature and intent of the
writing process itself.
The History of
Documents:
Emergent Innovation:
Innovation occurs
when energy and information combine in ways that haven't occurred before
in a particular environment and find a place in the ecology of that environment.
New combinations
are encouraged by an environment which creates the maximum opportunity
for non-linear interaction. When these interactions pass a threshold point of energy and
information exchange, positive returns begin to occur and risk/reward moves in the intended
direction. Energy-information exists in smaller "chunks" or "packets" than our logical
categories
and requires interaction at this level for maximum recombination opportunity.
The environment
in which the recombinations occur is equally important. An old idea in a new
environment (time and place) is new. It is as likely to find a niche as any first occurrence of
recombination. An environment which is friendly to new combination of energy-information is
one which is not too full nor too empty. Too full means that there is no excess of resources to
nurture the new and likely little space in which to establish a "fit" to the environment.
Too empty
suggests a lack of opportunity for contact and nourishment and too much space to explore
connection possibilities.
Explosions of new
ideas as well as life forms occur when there is space in the ecology for
survival without immediate need to provide immediate value or in some way outperform what
exists already. Disasters and isolation occurrences like tidepools provide this in nature. Living
things provide this as parents for the young.
The other major
environment required is one which is constantly looking for new sources of
growth, improvement, nourishment and increasing efficiency. A welcoming environment for the
new to test and discover its fit into the environment is provided by opportunity with increasing
threshold points for future growth. Failure to pass the threshold increases the energy required
on the new and provided increasing threats to its survival. Success provides a reduction in
energy required to continue.
1. Metaphor
