Adam Anthony’s Architecture Argument: An Advantageous Abductive Assessment that the Agent in the Arena exercises their Agency with Affordances, Artifacts, and Assemblages; through Attention, Appreciation, and Action, all of which Aggregate nonlinearly into Attunement, ultimately Augmenting their Agility, Adaptability, Acumen, Alignment, Acceptance, and optimizing Arousal, Appraisal, Awakening, Altruism, Awe, Aesthetics, and Authenticity, in an Age of Arduous Actuality; defined as preparation for the Apocalypse, while properly balancing Attachment, Aversion, and Affect to mitigate Ambiguity, Alienation, Anxiety, and Animosity.
Source: Midjourney Prompt: “Cozy A Frame Cabin in Woods, Sunlight, High Definition.”
Preface
It is ridiculous and likely semi-amusing to write about a bunch of words that start with A (In one particular language no less — English), and describe an entire reality navigation template from it. I offer it in a spirit of sincere irony and hope that it may prove illuminating in some fashion. My thoughts keep returning this concept for some purpose I cannot explain. I have to write this in order to keep moving forward. Right now, I do not have a well-curated list of citations, but the non-exhaustive list of thinkers whose ideas inform this piece include the works of John Boyd, Shawn Coyne, John Vervaeke, Bobby Azarian, Donella Meadows, Iain McGilchrist, Dave Snowden, Karl Friston, Alicia Juarerro, and many others. This essay series is a placeholder, a proto-synthesis that will develop further and morph as time progresses. I am not a complexity scientist, nor a cognitive scientist. But, as a practitioner out in the world, I am a student of those disciplines, and seek the consilience between old and new. I wrote my master’s thesis on Ground Force Commander decision-making, in part because I was curious how others made sense of the complex and chaotic seas in which we figuratively and sometimes literally swam. I am drawn to figuring out how to be a good human— how should we posture ourselves toward reality, in order to create flourishing for ourselves and the rest of passengers on this watery sphere. Let’s begin.
Introduction
“Since all models are wrong the scientist cannot obtain a "correct" one by excessive elaboration. On the contrary, following William of Occam he should seek an economical description of natural phenomena. Just as the ability to devise simple but evocative models is the signature of the great scientist, so over-elaboration and over-parameterization is often the mark of mediocrity.” — George Box1, source of the “All models are wrong, but some are useful” quote.
In an earlier essay, I wrote about the similarities between Shawn Coyne’s Five Commandments of Story (5 C’s) and John Boyd’s OODA Loop. I discussed how one way to look at the connections between these two models is that the 5 C’s are inside the “Orientation” part of OODA, while OODA itself sits in the “Turning Point/Crisis” area of the 5Cs. Both of these models provide a way to navigate and make sense of reality in a way which will improve conditions for those who employ them. The 5 C’s, following a prescriptive or cautionary story flow, illuminate the arc of existence in a curated manner. They highlight salient details to transmit an important lesson about wisdom to all who consume the story. The OODA loop, in turn, is a method which humans can use to “improve their ability for free and independent action”, and accomplish their goals in time and space.
However, there is another way to look at the connections between them, and that’s what I would like to discuss now. The cognitive scientist John Vervaeke has used the Arena, Agent, and Agency frame in his “Awakening from the meaning crisis” Youtube series. As I started writing this essay, it quickly ballooned up much larger than I wanted it to be for one piece, so it will be divided into three parts. We will discuss the Agent in part I, the Arena in part II, and Agency in part III. I put a glossary at the end of each essay with a definition for each of the A terms I have aggregated (pun intended ;)).
TL/DR: The main point I will build to in part III is the following: The way in which Agents exercise Agency in the Arena is through Attending to stimuli, Appreciating their significance, and Acting to achieve their objectives. This nonlinear, recursive process builds towards Attunement, which is a skillful interaction with a context or environment; a flowing coupling.
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” — Alan Watts
Metacognition — Thinking About Thinking
Worldviews
I like to think of these worldviews as different colored glasses that each of us wear. They block certain things, but reveal others. As Joe Lightfoot outlines in the great essay that this graphic came from, if we took a survey assessing our beliefs and values about reality, we would come out with a % for each of these worldviews, for how prominent each one is in our individual niche belief system. In the United States, the “culture war” is fueled by a mostly Traditional/Cosmopolitan worldview on the right (Mainly Modern), and a Holistic/Cosmopolitan worldview on the left (Mainly Postmodern).
Source: Joe Lightfoot: Foundational Worldviews
Integrative is an emerging worldview, roughly aligned with Metamodernism. Our individual view of the world will color how we see the Arena, how we perceive ourselves as Agents, and the manner in which we enact our Agency. Also, it plays a role in how we cycle through the Attend-Appreciate-Act sequence in a quest for Attunement.
4 P’s of Knowing
The "4 P's" framework is a model originally developed by Francisco Varela and popularized by cognitive scientist John Vervaeke to describe different dimensions of knowing and understanding. They provide a multidimensional framework that recognizes the different ways in which knowledge is acquired, understood, and applied. They also highlight the diverse aspects of human knowing and underscore the need for a holistic approach to education, learning, and problem-solving. Here is a handy graphic from Ryan Ferguson:
Source: Ryan Ferguson
Propositional Knowing: This type is expressed as propositions or statements. It deals with factual information and declarative knowledge. Propositional knowing focuses on the content of what is known and can be communicated through language, and involves understanding concepts, theories, and facts about the world.
Procedural Knowing: This type of knowing is expressed through skills, abilities, and actions. It is knowledge of how to do something, often acquired through practice and experience. Closely related to practical knowledge, it is often nonverbal. Some examples include knowing how to ride a bicycle, play a musical instrument, or solve a mathematical problem.
Perspectival Knowing: This knowing is shaped by one's subjective experience and perspective, and involves understanding and appreciating different viewpoints, beliefs, and cultural contexts. Perspectival knowing emphasizes the role of personal/social factors in shaping understanding. It involves empathy, seeing things from another person's perspective, and recognition that knowledge is influenced by individual/cultural biases.
Participatory Knowing: This is knowledge gained through active engagement and participation. It emphasizes importance of embodied, experiential, and interactive learning, and involves direct involvement and immersion in an activity or situation. Participatory knowing is associated with practical wisdom, intuition, and ability to respond effectively to complex and unpredictable situations.
6E Cognition
Commonly known as 4E cognition (Plus two additional E’s added by Vervaeke), this is a theoretical framework that challenges traditional views of cognition as being solely confined to the brain. It proposes that cognition is not solely the result of internal mental processes, but is instead influenced by and inseparable from the body, the environment, and the interactions between them.
1. Embodied Cognition: Embodied cognition emphasizes the role of the body and its interactions with the environment in shaping cognitive processes. It suggests that cognition is not solely a product of the brain, but is also influenced by sensory and motor experiences, bodily sensations, and the integration of perceptual and motor systems. For example, the way we understand and conceptualize abstract concepts can be grounded in our bodily experiences. Examples: Doing Yoga or playing basketball.
2. Embedded Cognition: Embedded cognition highlights the idea that cognitive processes are not isolated within the individual, but are instead embedded in and influenced by the surrounding environment and social context. It recognizes that cognitive activities are often in specific contexts and involve interactions with tools, artifacts, and other individuals. The environment and social interactions provide external resources that shape and support cognitive processes. Examples: The instrument panel of an automobile, using the internet.
3. Enacted Cognition: Enacted cognition emphasizes the active and dynamic nature of cognition, suggesting that it is not simply a matter of internal mental representations but is instead made up of ongoing interactions between the individual and the environment. It proposes that cognition is a process of actively engaging with the world and that our actions play a crucial role in shaping our thinking and understanding. Knowledge and cognition are emerging through our interactions and engagements with the environment. Examples: A crowd of stock markets traders buying and selling, the interplay between a student, teacher, and academic subject.
4. Extended Cognition: Extended cognition expands the boundaries of cognition beyond the individual and incorporates external tools, artifacts, and resources as integral parts of cognitive processes. It argues that cognitive processes can extend into the environment and that external resources can become integrated into cognitive systems. Examples: The use of a calculator or a smartphone, enabling us to offload certain mental tasks and enhance our problem-solving capabilities. Or my personal favorite, creating your own commonplace notebook of curated wisdom.
5. Emotional Cognition: Emotion is an integral part of cognition; the valence our mind assigns to a given stimulus will color the processing which comes after. Antonio Damasio has done a great deal of work on the role of emotion in cognition, specifically when emotion is lost due to an injury to the brain. Examples: The pre-snap “read” a football quarterback gets when observing the formation of the other team, choosing what you want to eat for lunch.
6. Exapted Cognition: Repurposing an existing cognitive pathway or process for a novel, evolutionarily helpful action. Examples: The evolution of wings in birds, or the development of vocal speech in humans are two examples of exaptation. For exapted cognition, language is a good example of using prexisting cognitive architecture to do new things, such as abstract concepts.2
Overall, this framework challenges the traditional view of cognition as a purely mental, brain-bound process. It highlights the inseparability of mind, body, and environment, and emphasizes the active, situated, and interactive nature of cognition. It has implications for various fields, including psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, as it offers a broader perspective on how cognition operates and how it can be studied and understood.
Free Energy Principle
The free energy principle (FEP) is a theoretical framework developed in neuroscience and cognitive science and popularized by Karl Friston. It seeks to explain how living organisms and intelligent systems maintain their internal states and interact with their environment. It proposes that organisms are driven by the goal of minimizing free energy, which can be thought of as a measure of uncertainty or surprise. Surprise here is not “haha — surprise!” but a mismatch between the organism and the environment — the fittedness. The FEP proposes that organisms have internal models of the world, and they actively seek to minimize this mismatch or surprise between their expectations and actual sensory inputs. By minimizing free energy, organisms can adapt to their environment, learn from new experiences, and maintain a stable and coherent understanding of the world. Here are some of the key components:
Free Energy: Refers to the difference between an organism's internal model or expectations about the world and the actual sensory information it receives from the environment. It represents the organism's uncertainty or surprise about its observations.
Internal Models: Organisms build internal models or representations of the world based on their previous experiences and knowledge. These models help them make predictions about what they expect to perceive or encounter in the environment.
Active Inference: The free energy principle suggests that organisms engage in active inference, which means they actively gather information from the environment to reduce their uncertainty or surprise. They do this by actively selecting and attending to specific sensory inputs that are most informative for updating their internal models.
Minimization of Free Energy: The central idea of the free energy principle is that organisms strive to minimize free energy over time. By minimizing free energy, organisms aim to bring their internal models in line with the sensory information they receive, reducing their uncertainty and improving their predictions about the world.
Divided Brains
In "The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World," McGilchrist explores the functioning of the human brain and its implications for our perception of the world. He argues that the brain's two hemispheres, the left and the right, have distinct functions and ways of processing information.
According to McGilchrist, the right hemisphere is characterized by holistic thinking, creativity, intuition, and an awareness of the interconnectedness of things. It focuses on the "bigger picture" and processes information in a more intuitive and simultaneous manner. The right hemisphere is associated with the appreciation of art, music, and spiritual experiences.
On the other hand, the left hemisphere is more analytical, linear, and focused on details. It excels at categorization, language, and logical reasoning. The left hemisphere breaks down the world into smaller parts, allowing for a more focused and specific understanding of individual elements.
McGilchrist suggests that the two hemispheres are not equal in their influence and proposes the metaphor of the "Master and His Emissary" to illustrate this relationship. The "Master" represents the right hemisphere, embodying a broader perspective and a deeper understanding of the world. The "Emissary" symbolizes the left hemisphere, carrying out specific tasks but lacking the holistic awareness of the Master.
The book further explores the historical and cultural implications of the dominance of the left hemisphere in Western societies. McGilchrist argues that the overemphasis on left hemisphere thinking has led to an imbalance and has contributed to the fragmented nature of modern society. The takeaway here is that a more integrated and balanced approach, with the right hemisphere's qualities given proper recognition, can lead to a more harmonious and meaningful existence.
Source: Sloww.co
Dynamic Model of Situated Cognition (DMSC)
I first encountered the Dynamic Model of Situated Cognition while looking through some of the digital archives at Naval Postgraduate School in 2015, while researching how to improve ground force commander decision-making. It immediately resonated- the model describes the interaction between technological and human agents in complex systems. It elegantly reveals the myriad ways information can be confused and twisted as it goes from environment to detection, assessment, communication and comprehension by decision makers at the other end.
What you see below is like the old game of telephone, coupled with stress, poor environmental conditions, and lots of noise blocking the signal. Each of the lenses depicted is an opportunity to lose signal fidelity, heightening confusion about what is happening. They are like wraps of cheesecloth over your eyes and ears, obscuring your view of the ground truth with cognitive biases. Similar to worldview, each Agent comes with their own unique set of biases — no matter what manner of human you are, we all have them.
Source: Miller and Miller
Summary
In this post I wanted to introduce/review some ways of thinking about the individual Agent — to discuss worldview, the source of so much conflict in our world at present. I also wanted to cover a few different ways of thinking about cognition, according to some of the latest developments in cognitive science, and with the DMSC show the ways that signal from the Arena can get garbled. In the next installment, we will talk about the Arena itself.
Glossary of Terms
Architecture — Unifying or coherent form or structure.
Argument — Coherent series of reasons, statements, or facts intended to support or establish a viewpoint.
Advantageous — Favorable; beneficial; profitable.
Abductive — Forming a conclusion from the information that is known.
Assessment — Act of judging or deciding the value, quality, important, or amount of something.
Affordances — Action defined in the relation between the Agent and the object.
Artifacts — Characteristic of and or resulting from particular human institution, period, trend, or individual.
Assemblages — Combination or pattern of elements that produce effects in the world.
Agent — One that acts or has the power or authority to act.
Arena — Place or scene where forces contend, or events unfold.
Agency — Mode of exerting power; means of producing effects.
Attention — Act of close or careful observing or listening; ability or power to keep the mind on something.
Appreciation — Recognition of quality, value, significance, understanding, or magnitude of people/things.
Action — State or process of acting or doing; something that is done or accomplished; deed.
Aggregate — Collect or gather into a mass or whole.
Attunement — Bring into harmony or accord, related to Merleau-Ponty’s concept of Optimal Grip; Fittedness to context.
Augment — Make greater, more numerous, larger, or more intense.
Agility — Moving quickly/easily; nimbleness; Ability to think/draw conclusions quickly; intellectual acuity.
Adaptability — The ability to change (or be changed) to fit changed circumstances; suitability; fittedness.
Acumen — Exceptional discernment and judgment, especially in practical matters.
Alignment — Arrangement of groups or forces in relation to one another.
Acceptance —Non-judgmental awareness and embracing of thoughts, feelings, and sensations as they occur.
Arousal— State of physiological alertness and readiness for action.
Appraisal — Act of estimating or judging the nature or value of something or someone.
Awakening — Coming into awareness.
Altruism — Unselfish concern for the welfare of others; selflessness.
Awe — Emotion combining veneration and wonder that is inspired by the sacred or sublime.
Aesthetics — Dealing with the nature, expression, and perception of beauty, as in the fine arts.
Authenticity — Fidelity to one's own personality, spirit, or character
Age — Period of time dominated by a central figure or prominent feature.
Arduous — Hard to accomplish or achieve; marked by great labor or effort; strenuous.
Actuality — Fact; reality.
Apocalypse — Revelation, disclosure; uncover, disclose, reveal; insight, vision; hallucination.
Attachment — Feeling that binds one to a person, thing, cause, ideal, or the like; devotion; regard.
Aversion — Avoidance of thing, situation, or behavior due to association with unpleasant/painful stimulus.
Affect — Produce an emotional response in (someone).
Ambiguity — Doubtfulness or uncertainty; capable of being understood in multiple senses or ways.
Alienation — Emotional isolation or dissociation; estrangement.
Anxiety — Uncertainty/fear resulting from anticipation of a real or imaginary threatening event/situation.
Animosity — Bitter hostility or open enmity.
Source of the famous “All models are wrong, but some are useful”: http://www-sop.inria.fr/members/Ian.Jermyn/philosophy/writings/Boxonmaths.pdf