The Social
Principles Tetrahedron:
An
Exercise in General Systems Modeling
(revised April 2005) John A. Gowan
http://www.johnagowan.org/index.html
http://www.johnagowan.org/TandD.html
Preface
This paper, which is primarily an
exercise and exhibit in General Systems modeling, assumes some
familiarity with the following diagrams, tables, and papers
found elsewhere on this website:
Links:
Ithaca
Group Vision Statement mapped on the Tetrahedron
Principles
of a Unified Field Theory: A Tetrahedral Model
Four Social Themes
During a "Future Fair" retreat held
in Thetford Vermont, Sept. 2002 (hosted by Joanne and A. T. Jaccaci), the Ithaca delegation was
asked to generate a plan for their own "Future Fair",
tentatively scheduled for the following summer. The Ithaca
group decided their fair would explore four themes of social
significance: l) Spirit; 2) Science; 3) Environment; 4)
Community.
Being particularly taken with this
foursome as a promising and worthy set, I decided to map the 4
topics on the "Tetrahedron
Model of Universal Principle" to see if they would
produce a natural fit - a set whose social concepts
corresponded in scope and meaning to the 4 poles (vertices,
points) of physical principles in the tetrahedron model. If
they did, then this set of topics would pass at least one test
concerning its adequate embrace of the issues confronting
humanity today.
This fit is diagramed in the figure "Ithaca
Group Vision Statement" in which a linkage is made
between l) Spirit and the Conservation pole; 2) Science (and
Art) and the Symmetry pole; 3) Environment and the Entropy
pole; 4) Community and the Information pole.
In order to both enlarge and define
the conceptual base surrounding each of these 4 topics (to
help us decide just how well they fit the model), the 3
Astrological "Sun Signs" (signs of the Zodiac) of the
astrological "Element" corresponding most closely in meaning
to each point of the tetrahedron are listed, and their
physical (scientific) and metaphysical (astrological)
characteristics are briefly noted.
Analysis of the Archetypes
(For the traditional interpretations
of the Astrological Archetypes (Zodiac "Sun Signs"), I rely on
the superb book by Isabelle M. Pagan. Of course, I add to
these my own interpretations from my "General Systems" work in
physics.)
[Note: I use only the classical,
"naked eye" "planets" in my astrological assignments, as these
preserve the original meanings of the ancient, intuitive
genius that devised the system of astrological archetypes. These are as
follows, in 6 male-female pairs: 1) Sun = Leo, Moon = Cancer;
2) Jupiter = Sagittarius and Pisces; 3) Mars = Aries and
Scorpio; 4) Mercury = Gemini and Virgo; 5) Venus = Libra and
Taurus; 6) Saturn= Aquarius and Capricorn. If you think of
these "planets" not as simple astronomical bodies, but as
representing archetypes - similar to the Greek and Roman Gods
named for them - you will be better able to appreciate how
such symbols are used metaphorically in the following
discussion.]
l) Spirit: Fire Signs: Sagittarius, Aries,
Leo
Sagittarius The Sage or Philosopher is identified
with light (in physics), the planet Jupiter, and the chief of
the Greco-Roman gods. We have therefore the association of
light with wisdom, and we note that most of the human brain is
devoted to visual processing. The creative imagination is
primarily visual; the principle elements of wisdom are
referred to as insight and foresight; we identify leaders as
"visionary" or possessing "vision", by which we mean wisdom
pertaining to a proper course of action and the prediction of
events, much like a "seer". Hence Sagittarius represents above
all else the archetype of intelligence, vision, and light,
optimism, hope and good fortune, an appropriate Supreme Deity
for the visually dominated intellect of Homo sapiens. The
mental connection with conservation begins in Sagittarius with
memory; because past is prolog, there is no foresight or
wisdom without memory. The memory of the Universe is carried
in historic spacetime as light (among other forms), as we have
discovered through our great telescopes, and as the ancients
divined in their notion of the "Akashic record".
Aries The second member of this spiritual
trinity is Aries, represented in the physical system as
electric charge, and in the human and astrological system as
Mars, God of war. Socially, this is the military; religiously,
this is the element of action, force, and omnipotent power
always associated with the Deity. We reluctantly confess that
this aspect is appropriate to the warlike and violent element
so obviously present in human nature. The constructive and
necessary element of Aries is self-defense, hunting, fitness,
athletics, health, strength, and the physical capacity for
survival, work, enterprise, exploration, and discovery.
Beyond all this, Aries is associated
with perception. Light cannot interact with matter unless
matter carries an electric charge. Perception is the most
universal function of Aries - no athlete, warrior, or pioneer
survives long without an excellent perceptual (nervous) system
(which, as we have learned, is electrical in character). Hence
Aries stands between Sagittarius (light) and Leo (mass-matter)
as the perceptual system which allows communication between
the unmanifest and manifest
aspects of spirit and energy.
Leo This sign is astrologically associated
with the Sun, the King (or social leader), and/or the father.
In physics, Leo represents the property of inertial mass
(gravitational "weight") in matter. Leo is the metabolism or
essential energy of a system, be it mass as in the case of the
Sun, light for plants, food for the human body, fuel for
transportation, heat, and industry, jobs and money for the
family, electricity for the city, or taxes for the King and
society. The economy is the primary responsibility of the
King, CEO, chief, or father. Leo represents our economic
relationship to the Earth, our niche, our way of extracting
energy from the environment. Energy is the primary
environmental issue, the primary issue of life, hence the
primary responsibility and concern of the King (defense is
properly delegated to Aries, the Warrior). If we take our
example from the Sun (as we should), we will learn how to use
the photoelectric effect in solar panels, and hydrogen as a
fuel, both chemically (in cars) and in fusion reactors (for
electricity).
Comment: The Fire signs as represented here
portray a spiritual realm of light, wisdom, and vision, active
and forceful, manifesting as various forms of energy. I submit
that this is a most interesting portrayal of the spiritual
realm, suggesting a host of topics suitable for discussion and
consideration under this heading, including the creative
imagination, the consequences for humanity of intelligence,
reason, and foreknowledge (especially of death), the meaning of
wisdom and visionary revelation; perception and its
relationship to defense; the role of the military, martial
arts, sports, fitness and health, and finally the topic of
energy itself, as manifest in its multiplicity of forms and
uses.
Military topics are not usually
considered "spiritual" in western society, but such
body-mind-spirit connections are commonly discussed and
practiced by spiritual masters in the East - Martial Arts,
Yoga, Zen, Tai Chi, etc. Of course, the military is not
lacking in the Christian tradition either, if one choses to
look for it, including the battle between God and Lucifer
(continued as the ongoing "war" between "Good and Evil"), the
role of the Archangel Michael, St. Anthony the dragon-slayer,
the Knights of the Round Table and their Grail Quest, the
Crusades ("Onward Christian Soldiers", etc.
2) Symmetry - Science - Art: Air
Signs: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
The Science - Art theme
is assigned to the Symmetry pole and the Air signs, as they
appear to be closest in meaning to the realm of atomic and
nuclear physics, chemistry, and the Periodic Table of the
Elements.
Gemini In physics, Gemini represents the
leptons, the field of light elementary particles (electrons,
neutrinos) which serve as alternative charge carriers for the
massive quarks. Gemini also represents the IVBs, the force
carriers or field vectors of the weak force, the very curious
and very heavy "Intermediate Vector Bosons" which provide a
bridge, catalyst, or mediator between the virtual
particle-antiparticle "sea" and the "real" world of matter,
allowing the transformation, birth, and death of elementary
particles, both quarks and leptons. In Astrology and human
affairs, Gemini represents the ability of the human mind to
produce abstractions, symbolic images, and fanciful
representations of reality- as well as to think reflexively
about itself. Hence Gemini is known as the "Twins". The
symbolic and abstracting intellectual capacity of Gemini has
produced written language, musical and mathematical notation,
including our counting numbers, money, code and computer
language, and all the symbolic and abstract images of our
culture, including art, the theater, entertainment, ideal
forms and symbols of every kind, fantasy, spirituality, and
what concerns us most in the context of community, the
iconographic symbology of religions, politics, nationalism and
patriotism, including every kind of propaganda. There are many
kinds of social animals, but only man organizes his society
through and around abstract symbols.
Gemini is also the
artist-shaman-priest-magician. A perfect example of Gemini's
work in this role is the prehistoric cave paintings of
Lascaux, France. These paintings provide the prey animals with
an alternative, symbolic identity which aids the hunter in
their capture. Human communities form around such ideal
images; - our abstracting and symbolic minds require an
abstract and symbolic identity, both personally and socially
(names, nick names, totem animals). Animal images evolve to
images of gods, ghosts, spiritual forms, tribal totems,
ancestors. We see Gemini's symbolic art in the statuary and
buildings of every ancient culture, from the Egyptian Sphinx
to the temples of Angkor Wat to the stone Jaguars of Central
and South America to the giant stone faces of Easter Island.
What begins as sketches of bison in the caves ends as a divine
allegory in the Sistine Chapel.
But Gemini is more than art, it is
symbology: religious, tribal, and national symbols and totems
are powerfully involved in the psychology of human social
organizations. Our national flag, our national anthem, the
Great Seal of the United States, the Statue of Liberty, are
all examples of symbols referring to the social organization
on the scale of nationhood we know as the United States of
America. Other sets of symbols identify religious
organizations. The power of the symbol lies in the fact that a
single, simple symbol can be used to represent social
membership to millions of different individuals at once, and
so cement their social identity and coordinate their energy.
1
We also associate Gemini with the realms of theater, acting, and entertainment; together with the technology of Virgo, Gemini has created the modem "alternative reality show" of computers, television, the movies, indeed, the entire audio-visual entertainment industry. We should distinguish, however, between the visual imagination of Sagittarius and the symbolic abstractions of Gemini; together they form a powerfully creative combination giving us the ability to read written language, musical, or mathematical notation
Libra
Aquarius - Arts and Sciences
The
major effect of Aquarius upon Science and Art is through the
schools and the media - the latter including newspapers,
television, radio, magazines, books, etc.
What
and how to teach children is a huge and contentious issue, and
there are many agendas at play: the various religions have their
established interests; the politicians, patriots, and military
have another and competing set; the community itself will
require a certain level of skill and technological competence to
remain a self-sustaining and economically viable unit; finally
the larger, future interests of the society and the species will
require education at an advanced level in the arts and sciences,
including professional and speciality studies.
As
for the media, it is a powerful form of social "glue", nowadays
providing everyone with a uniform level of information, news and
entertainment - a well-homogenized culture on a mass scale that
only the electronic media can serve. The internet is the
culmination of this social matrix in which everyone is
instantaneously informed of everything, everywhere. The media,
in its socializing effect, corresponds to the "school" of adult
life.
The topic of Environment (in the
sense of "green" issues) we associate with the Entropy pole,
as entropy's relation to dimensionality, time, and evolution
make these a likely pair.
Pisces In physics, Pisces represents space,
while in astrology Pisces represents the poet, language arts,
music, and the emotional and intuitive mind. While language is
obviously of primary importance to the human condition, I have
explored this aspect of Pisces in the Postscript of this
article and in: A Genera1 Systems Analysis of the Creative
Process in Nature. In the context of the Entropy,
Dimensionality, and Environment pole of the Tetrahedron, it is
the simple spatial aspect of Pisces that seems most relevant.
When we think of the meaning of space in human terms, what
comes to mind most immediately is the dispersal of our species
to every available terrestrial habitat and space over the
entire surface of the Earth. We are the most abundant and
widely dispersed of any species of large terrestrial
vertebrate. Space, in terms of dispersal, expansion,
exploration, exploitation, and even conquest - the "Great
Frontier" - means a great deal to humanity. We like our space
and our spaces, and we are always wanting more. Our population
has exploded to the point where we fill most of the habitable
space of the Earth, and are now beginning to look beyond the
meager limits of our home planet to new horizons, frontiers,
and planets in the solar system and the galaxy itself.
The first great dispersal (of modern
Homo sapiens) was out of Africa into the European and Asian
continentsá some 200,000 - 300,000 years ago; thence to
Australia about 50,000 years ago, and finally to the Americas
perhaps 15,000 years ago. Even the remote Pacific islands were
colonized. In every case these colonizations
resulted in major extinctions of the resident species,
especially of the larger animals. In historic times, Europeans
rediscovered the Americas, Australia, and the Pacific islands,
recolonizing them and again causing new extinctions, including
preexisting human populations.
Space is something that humans, like
most biological organisms, seem to occupy up to and beyond its
capacity to absorb and support them. The most crucial aspect
of space is that, on planet Earth at least, it is limited.
These simple spatial limits impose constraints on our
population size and our behavior; we become aggressively
territorial both in terms of private property and socially in
terms of national boundaries. It also drives us into
competition with other species and each other for the use of
space, such that we are currently witnessing mass extinction
on a scale seen before in only a few of the most catastrophic
events in Earth's history. Humanity's population expansion and
domination of space has become a biological catastrophe for
the Earth, and may easily result in our extinction as well. We
will not be missed by what remains, if anything, of the
"natural" flora and fauna of the Earth. We are a rapacious,
polluting species who has not Iearned
how to live at peace with either our own kind or our fellow
creatures.
In the correspondence between physics
and the astrological "Sun Signs" which we are constructing,
Pisces represents space - something humans never seem to have
enough of. Perhaps it is our endless thirst for more space
that will eventually propel us into the galaxy and the "Final
Frontier". In this effort, our species may finally grow up and learn to
appreciate each other and our beautiful Earth: one has to
leave home to fully mature.
Cancer Cancer (referencing the Crab, not the
disease) is associated astrologically with the Moon, the
Mother, and with Gaia or Mother Earth, since the Earth and the
Moon share the same solar orbit. Cancer represents
reproduction, birth, childhood, and parental nurture,
agriculture, territoriality, home, hearth, and mother, all our
most intimate, personal and physical connections with the
Earth; Earth is our home and mother; we are her children.
Cancer represents our (proper) symbiotic, mutualistic
relationship with Nature. In physics, Cancer represents
gravity, the force that creates a place, home, and a territory
for us in the Cosmos; gravity is the umbilical cord that
connects us to the spacetime metric and the whole of the
external Universe.
Agriculture, protection of the
environment, "green" issues, reverence for life, Nature, and
the Earth are central themes in Cancer. The concept of Gaia
(the Earth as a super-organism) originates here. The major
issue of population control, abortion, contraception, etc., is
centered in this, the archetypal feminine sign.
Scorpio
In
Astrology, Scorpio is associated with Mars, the karmic cycle
of reincarnation, ancestors and posterity, evolutionary
change, genetic destiny, and the physician's medical
profession, including the study of botany, the source of most
of the doctor's remedies (herbals, "botanicals"). In modem
times, evolution has passed into our own hands, progressing
beyond the simple selective breeding and hybridization of
domestic plants and animals, to biotechnology and genetic
engineering, the direct manipulation of the genetic material
itself. Scorpio, then, represents our evolutionary connection
to the environment, including medicine and the Physician's
arts, including genetics, selective breeding, genetic
engineering, and biotechnology. In physics, Scorpio represents
time, the entropic driver of the material realm. Scorpio and
Cancer are closely connected in that time and gravity induce
each other in an endless cycle, as do reproduction (Cancer)
and evolution (Scorpio).
The control of evolution by humanity
is an issue which we embraced happily enough in the selective
breeding of plants and animals for domestic and agricultural
purposes, but which in recent times has raised fears of
genetic monstrosities ("Frankenfoods"),
human
clones, and of a "super race" of humans ("eugenics"}.
Comment The sense we develop from this
analysis is that Water Signs are economically, symbiotically,
and evolutionarilly embedded in the biological matrix of Gaia.
It is evident that the health and well-being of ourselves, our
families, and our posterity depends entirely upon the health
and well-being of this mutualism. Once again, we seem to have
a fine fit in meaning between the traditional Sun Signs and
the conceptual poles of the "Tetrahedron Model".
It is in the connectivity of all
things that spirit resides, and in the discovery and
exploration of this connectivity that the pleasures of life -
spiritual, emotional, intellectual, or physical, ultimately
subsist. The notion of "Information" provides a tangible
connection between the manifest domain of physics with the
unmanifest "spiritual" realm envisioned by humans. "In the
Beginning was the Word".
I
4) Community - Life - Causality - Information ("Karma"):
Earth Signs: Virgo, Capricorn, Taurus
Causality
"Law and Order" in social life
derives from the principle of causality, "karma", or the
responsibility and liability of the individual for his actions
- the simple recognition of the fact that actions have
consequences. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth", represents a common legal causal order
which is the social equivalent of Newton's Third Law
of equal and opposite action vs reaction. The "Golden Rule" is
a universal symmetry statement of social fair play, equity,
and karmic consequence. Causality and "karma" encapsulates the
central behavioral feature of social life - the formal, legal,
regulation of social interaction and the meting out of justice
in a manner that satisfies our natural instinct and awareness
of the physical law of causality: actions must have
appropriate consequences, the guilty must be identified and
punished, the innocent must be spared, punishment must be
proportional to the crime, etc.
There is an inevitable linkage
between causality and information, in that assigning
appropriate consequences to any action obviously requires a
certain minimum of information regarding the nature of the
action. Only the non-local energy of light is so symmetric as
to be acausal and completely lacking in information. All local
types of "bound energy" (such as atomic matter) involve mass,
time, charge, gravitation, information, and hence causality.
Virgo In our physical
"Tetrahedron Model", Virgo is associated with the quarks, the
sub-elementary particles which occur in triplets in protons
and neutrons, representing the massive component of matter. In
Astrology and human affairs, Virgo is associated with the
Inventor and with Vulcan, the Blacksmith of the Gods, and so
with the human capacity for tool-making, and indeed all of
technology, from the stone ax to the Moon rocket. Virgo
represents the marriage of the human mind and hand, producing
the manual, mechanical, and technical arts, including
mechanical drawing and Geometry, the "mother of mathematics".
Issues raised in Virgo include the
pivotal role of technology (in every field) in getting
humanity into, and hopefully out of, the manifold problems of
our mechanized World Culture. Can we survive our own
ingenuity? Can advanced technology coexist with the unevolved
passions of our animal heritage? Are we simply apes with guns?
Capricorn In
our physical
model, Capricorn represents the strong force color charge, the
charge that binds the quarks in triplets forming protons and
neutrons, and which (possibly) "leaks" outside these nuclear
particles in sufficient quantity to hold (naturally occurring)
compound nuclei together of up to 238 nucleons
(uranium). (See: "The Strong
Force: Two Expressions".) Capricorn-Libra is also the
central site of the interaction of quarks and leptoquarks with
the "IVBs" of the weak force, heavy "metric" particles (the W,
Z, X bosons) which control the birth, death, and transformations
of the elementary quarks and leptons (radioactivity).
This violent interaction is also celebrated in the mythology
surrounding Saturn and his children, which he eats but is
forced to disgorge - the role of the neutrino in physics and
the Lawyer in society, rescuing the individual from the
all-devouring State. Astrologically, Capricorn is associated
with the planet Saturn, whose rings also suggest boundaries
(such as the wedding ring), and with the Goat, Shepherd, or
Officer, whose role is that of flock or group leader and
regulator. In human affairs, Capricorn is associated with the
government, religious or secular, and with the laws, rules,
and regulations (and their police enforcement), which are the
necessary and universal accompaniment to all social life.
Taurus In "our physics", Taurus represents the
compound atomic nucleus, the center of atomic energy and
order. In astrology, Taurus represents the architect or
builder: cities, urban development, commerce, industry, the
central physical structure, infrastructure, and wealth of
society. The rise of civilizations depends upon the
development of cities and the concentration of power, energy,
wealth, resources, and social organization they permit, such
that significant works producing environmental control and
transformation can be accomplished. This includes not only
public and private buildings, but the infrastructure of the
city, streets, bridges, etc., as well as the warehouses and
markets of commerce and the factories of industry.
Issues centered in
Taurus include everything relating to urban development (and
decay), industry, and commerce. The general health of cities,
city planning, the regulation of industry, corporate
responsibility, multinational corporations, the World Bank,
free trade treaties, etc. - all these are issues in the domain
of Taurus.
In summary, we find an excellent match between the Earth Signs and Community - Virgo supplying the inventive genius, technology and instruments, Capricorn the government funding and regulation, Taurus the urban development, the infrastructure, the general civilization level, the commerce, industry, and wealth to support the social institution, effort, and product of technology
Finally,
I note that the 4 social topics (Spirit, Science, Environment,
Community), seem to be: 1) appropriately placed on their
corresponding tetrahedron model "points"; 2) thematically
related to these points, as clarified by comparison with the
"Sun Signs" of the four "Elements". In view of these
correspondences, and the demonstrated sufficiency of the
Tetrahedron model to which they refer, I conclude that this set
of social topics, broadly interpreted and addressed, is adequate
in both scope and content to inform critical social issues of
our time.
Links:
Ithaca
Group Vision Statement Mapped on the "Tetrahedron Model"