501. Whacky Gibberish Poem Entitled "The Co-Evolution of Collective Action"

PDF for Poem "Co-Evolution of Collective Action" can be found here:

http://sites.google.com/site/stokastika2/coevolutionofcollectiveaction.pdf

Epic Tattoo of the Phoenix on the back of my great friend, Lauri Green. The Phoenix is a most appropriate metaphor in terms of exploring the simultaneous feedbacks between constructionism and deconstructionism in the above poem. Candidate for Vispo!

Epic Tattoo of the Phoenix on the back of my great friend, Lauri Green. The Phoenix is a most appropriate metaphor in terms of exploring the simultaneous feedbacks between constructionism and deconstructionism in the above poem. Candidate for Vispo!

Sunday night I was going on this philosophical stream of consciousness and "heading toward the right direction of my powerpoint presentation," and Monday morning, I woke up realizing that my day was going to be chopped up, and I wanted to give myself something to do in Barry's creative writing class (giving myself something--some fiddling project--to do ultimately keeps me more attentive in class for some reason), so I brought these two poems I had concocted, as inspired by readings from Mike Davis, Chapters 15 and 16 of "Dead Cities." Chapter 15 explored the notion of nonlinear contingencies in the history of life on earth, synthesizing some literatures in planetary geology (whoever's responsible for studying asteroids), ecology-evolutionary biology, and some social science sources. I was elated that Davis synthesized the often philosophically disconnected fields of geology and evolutionary biology (very much disconnected in mentalities I had experienced when ploughing through the coursework) in a way that I synthesized the fields, but through independent labors. I would write the chapter with slight differences, and also some additions, but overall I was a very happy, very inspired reader. Chapter 16 entailed "science and imagination," how certain scientists and naturalists envisioned post-disaster cities in "imaginative ecological reconstructions." (And on that note, I wrote Blog 502 on "thought experiments" that can't exactly be tested or replicated, adding to the trail of "Mike Davis" Blogs 482, 475, and 466).So, last quarter, these two chapters were superb, extremely inspirational readings I had spent quite a bit of time with. I was quite intellectually aroused, my entire "oak tree" or "coral reef" inside my head was shaking around, getting stimulated.... So, at one point, I was zooming up to Riverside to attend a Mike Davis-and-Bub-field trip (which was quite a bit of fun!) and I had one-point-five hours in the car to think about whatever the hxll I wanted, and that is the time I devised these two poems.... The Intergalactic Tide of Hyperassociations, featuring my Greek Mother, and The Co-Evolution of Collective Action, which is seen here.

The idea for the poem actually came much, much earlier. At the end of March 2009, I finished CHESS and I'm still trying to find poems to include in the second edition (besides having intentions to illustrate and visualize the set of poems). April of 2009 I went to the Origins Conference and was exposed to the Medea Hypothesis of evolution, in which life itself mass accumulates certain properties and sets up its own "unnatural disaster," or collective suicide, much like humans. In other words, you need to have a mass accumulation in order to create a mass extinction. Medea is "kind of" in opposition of this whole Gaia (pansy-xss) mentality, and what is interesting here is that both theories imply some form of "super-organismic" evolution beyond genes, individual organisms, species.... And then my clever little brain... as I just had taken "environmental institutions" course with Oran Young, I started to think instead of associating these very cool phenomena with "superorganismic bullshxt," that we should borrow the term "collective action" from political science and call these Gaia/Medea/Shiva effects (Shiva is a metaphor that Mike Davis uses and represents as some form of destructive element imposed on a system, like a meteor impact). So, it's not just evolution by natural selection, it's evolution by collective action, but in order to publish such a beautiful idea, I first have to create some bullshxt math model from fake data and then the great idea becomes science. My xss. So, I publish in my blog... and maybe make a film, eh? Or, a nice little poem here. Theorizing with poetry, eh? I also further noticed that there are two modes of thinking in evolution, construction and deconstruction, and they go hand-in-hand, you need both in a dynamic dance, and so my ultimate metaphor for all of this constructive deconstructionism, deconstructive constructionisms is... THE PHOENIX (which is an ultimate tatoo of my friend Lauri)! American interpretations of Darwinian evolution is largely competitive and deconstructivist, whereas Russian and Eastern European interpretations are more constructivist. And of course, somehow capitalism and socialism gets factored into cultural interpretations of Darwinian theories... Bah! (So, all my past references to this past paragraph are in Blog 475 Untended Cemeteries, Blog 425, life-death cycles, Blog 424, Gaia-Medea, Blog 380, Poem, Principles of Scientific and Ecological Inertia).

As you can see, the construction of this poem has a LOT of recent historical baggage, recent evolution, intricate internal neural wiring that lays deep in my head.... So, the issue was... why did I procrastinate in writing this poem last quarter? This quarter is Anti-Procrastination Quarter, just to let you know, it's about Just Do It Now without any questions asked. And I'll be danged if I am going to procrastinate again. To think that I was going to be able to write such a complicated poem, Co-evolution of Collective Action, in a distracting classroom environment? HA! Ya right. Well, I always think I will get a project done in a jiffy, and I end up being a slow poke... oh well.

I was quite amused when I was scribbling chicken scratch on the car on the way to Mike Davis' field trip. I told a very nice Asian student in class that I wrote that poem and she was amused. We exchanged emails, and I am dufous because I did not follow up. *Sigh.* I dont' know where the email is at the moment....

So FINALLY, after a two month lag time, I hammer out this poem, and I take a step back... it's engrossed with alliteration. I am sure Shelly Lowenkopf would say "gibberish." Same for Barry. It would probably drive him crazy in a good way. So, maybe if I email Barry and say, "if you respond to this poem as 'whacky gibberish,' then I think I may have done my job." Because I think it's as far as the poem is going to go in other people's heads.... Besides all this profound underlying meaning... Barry felt the same with my "Whatever's Left of the Wild West" poem. Oh well... and so it goes.

Ooo... blog 501 is a toughy. "01" makes me feel like I'm starting from scrap. The more and more I am blogging, the more I am coming to realize there are "narrative threads" (or more so "vertical stacking" over "horizontal spreading" of mental coral reef growth) in the blogs I write. Blog 52 connects to Blog 101 and the string of Blogs 455-461. Emergent themes, emergent storylines, I suppose? And the other trend I noticed, is the more that I write, the more I am associating. Creativity is a [scary] expansive feedback effect... and my own "recording/writing" head has a hard time keeping up with my right brain and prefrontal cortex. Definitely some internal neurological conflict of rates of processing... *Sigh!*

424. Poem / Song "Gaia-Medea" with a LOT of Backstory from Origins Conference (Arizona State University, April 2009) (EVOLUTION BY COLLECTIVE ACTION)

I know each poem is deserving of its own blog entry, but I was hunting for "Gaia-Medea" and accidentally stumbled upon two other poems/songs I was formulating in a car that I thought are worth "barfing out now" so that they can be worked upon and elaborated more consciously!

I formulated "Gaia-Medea" poem on the way down to San Diego (gone fishing!) but I was truly inspired by the works of an Earth Scientist (Dr. Peter Ward) at the Origins Conference (ASU University) who holds the perspective of the Medea Hypothesis (disastrologist, pessimist approach) over Gaia when it comes to Life on Earth as a happy-dosy-self-sustaining system. (I think water ultimately serves as a checks-and-balances character). This professor takes a unique stance in exploring the role of microbes in macro-scale ecological catastrophe in geological scales and I bet this dude will jive quite well with my undergrad advisor Armand Kuris (Parasite Prof). I talked to the moderator of the panel--I believe Dr. Manfred Laubichler (internal versus internal-regulation, serenity prayer conversation, I will discuss a later time)-- and I told him that I was concerned that Gaia and Medea are like bipolar-opposities of each other and are merely perceptual frames for research agendas. Essentially, the history of this planet shows evidence for cycles of origins, growth, shifts, decay, catastrophic ends, and cycles of rebirth, so on and so forth. The petri dish of planet Earth largely remains empty, oxygen came around, organisms explode in size and population size, like megacorporate mass production of life kicks in because efficiency of oxygen transport, then the petri dish gets full, shxt happens in a case of fullness vulnerability (combinatotion of various self-induced biotic and non-self-induced abiotic factors, density-dependent or density-independent), then the scenario is wiped blank slate again (like some kind of meteorite, toxic, anoxic event), and the meek scum rock-digesting bacteria shall always inherit the Earth. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I didn't tell Dr. Laubichler all of this, but I told him that why are there two bipolar perspectives when there are cycles of both Gaia-Medea. Wouldn't a more appropriate metaphor of A PHOENIX be more appropriate in terms of understanding coupled organismal-environmental systems? Human-envronmental systems? And he said very instinctively, yes, indeed, that would make a LOT of sense! And then I told him, that I am studying the role of metaphor and scale in conceptualizing human-environmental systems and science and society, as well as allowing the bridge of analogies and parallels with the natural sciences and the social sciences. Do you think this is a worthwhile agenda? And Dr. Laubichler also swiftly stated, that "Yes, this would indeed be a very legitimate research agenda, as long as the metaphors are not shallow-pass-off-analogies, but metaphors that are deeply embedded in the thought processes of the research and advances conceptual understanding of intra-and-interdisciplinary work. And I was very happy that he said this. I wore a gold star on my forehead for a couple of days :-). I felt legitimatized by someone with credentials I never met in my entire life until that moment in space and time. I love it!

The other issue I noticed is how disciplines borrowed terms from other rather remote disciplines. Geologists borrowed the term "incumbency," which is a word usually used in political contexts. What I thought was VERY interesting was use of the word complex--rival, non-rival (competitive-non-competitive for finite-space-time), excludable (elite club access), and non-exludable (access to all, socialist)--these traditionally-economics terms were borrowed TWICE through the entirety of the Origins symposium: once potentially by Dr. Steve Mojzsis (he's SOOO cool, I think he's and Earth Science prof based on Colorado), and once definitely by Dr. Steven Pinker (in linguistics--words as windows to the mind, who was clobbered by the skeptical ASU audience because Dr. Pinker was only measuring intelligence through word use and not spatial-problem solving and artistic outputs). I am SOOO excited simply because I witnessed this concept-word borrowing from disciplines, and it's also media-documented! Woohoo!

The other topic I did not mention to Dr. Laubichler but am now coming to vividly perceive as a REFLEXIVE SCIENTIST (a reflexive scientist [like me] is basically a scientist who has come to the conclusion that science is done by humans, and by default becomes a philosopher of science of sorts) is how the positive / negative mammalian taxis--or how OPTIMISM and PESSIMISM--ultimately shapes and frames scientific agendas.
In the parallels of the history of life on Earth, and origins of humans and their environments...

OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM AS INTRINSIC PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA ADDICTION / FIXATION / GROWTH / LOSS / WITHDRAWAL: (psychology of loss, whether your family member, friend, pet, a drug addiction, post-pardum depression after quarter finals at school, your job, or 20 years of scientific research overhauled by a young stud) (five steps on death and dying) EVEN PERCEIVED IN THE NOTION OF SCIENTIFIC PARADIGM SHIFTS / SCIENCE AS INCREMENTAL AND/OR RADICAL IN CHANGE OF PERCEPTION AND THOUGHT PROCESS (like for thousands of years we added knowledge to the universe of Sun Cycling Around the Earth, and then one day we came to perceive the Earth was cycling around the sun, it requires a knowledge overhaul and shifting-re-organizing entirety of accumulated incremental knowledge!) A BIRTH AND DEATH AND REBIRTH IN SCIENTIFIC THINKING!

LIFE ON EARTH DUALIST METAPHORS OF OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM:
MEDEA HYPOTHESIS (pessimism) -- Peter Ward
GAIA HYPOTHESIS (optimism) -- James Lovelock (I don't like the frame of Gaia at all!)

HUMAN-ENVIRONMENTAL DUALIST METAPHORS/ CONCEPTS OF OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM:
HISTORICAL OVERFISHING (pessimism, "policy dark side of forest") -- Jeremy Jackson, Boris Worm, etcetera... (not to specifically mention these people, but there was a whole cult of pessimist science research coming out... well, it was by default, pessimistic, without much "what can we do about it" type of perspective
FISHERIES MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS (e.g. catch shares) (optimism, positive search image) -- Steve Gaines, Chris Costello
GLASS HALF-EMPTY / GLASS HALF-FULL--Dr. Jared Diamond dichotomized the positive and negative search image for the growth and collapse of societies (human-environmental systems) in "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and "Collapse" without looking into the relationships of both sides of the coin
GLASS HALF-EMPTY / GLASS HALF-FULL also perceived in the "GLOBAL WARMING" issue Al Gore taking a glass-half empty appraoch with inconsistent backing, the positive and negative aspects of the global-warming argument, as well as the post-global warming positive and negative outcomes (e.g. deserts will be prime real estate and islands will be flooded, millions of humans moved)

SOLUTION-METAPHOR THAT INTEGRATES CYCLES OF OPTIMISM-PESSIMISM-ORIGINS-GROWTH-COLLAPSE:
The Phoenix (a la Lauri Green, with a phoenix and a huge jelly fish tattooed on her back), enduring through the passing her perhaps most dearest family member, talk about TWO DIE-HARD TATTOOES! I think Lauri Green and Milton Love are the two coolest marine biologists each with two really cool tattooes, I need to start a collection here! natural history tattooed on human bodies, what an absurd collection!) through the times, life and death is all about periods of shifting baselines (life is never in a static stable state, always shifting) punctuated by extreme events (whether personal, collective human-environmental, or life on earth); and such is about constructing universal narrative themes.

More specifically, the MEDEA HYPOTHESIS (term coined by paleontologist Peter Ward for the Anti-Gaian hypothesis) is that multicellular life, unstood as a matrix-like "superorganism" is "suicidal." Succeeding at suicide would return Earth to the microbial-dominated state that has been the norm for most of its history.

The above passage was derived from Wikipedia, and it bothers the hxll out of me. I don't consider there being a "superorganism" complex. I feel that all of life has similar properties such that it acts constructively and deconstructively in feedbacks and certain events shows COLLECTIVE MASS ACCUMULATION IMPACTS ON LIFE AS A WHOLE simply because all living organisms have certain properties in common (they're all ALIVE!). Living organisms are "not suicidal" ("suicide" is TELEOLOGICAL and ANTHOPOMORPHIC: organisms as a collective with "super-organismic properties" operate as a PROCESS not with PURPOSE--assigning purpose to phenomena that are process-oriented and not induced by any individual organism or individual mind). Instead of "suicide," I would use the term "SELF-INDUCED VULNERABILITY TO MASS EXTINCTION, EITHER THROUGH THE MASS ACCUMULATION OF UNFAVORABLE BIOTIC FACTORS, COUPLED BIOTIC-ABIOTIC FACTORS, AND/OR UNCONTROLLABLE ABIOTIC EVENTS."

Anyhoo, I am so GLAD I found that the Medea Hypothesis exists because my father spoke with Dr. Martin Kennedy quite a few times about Snowball Earth the the global shutting down of a Photosynthesis Pump associated with certain abiotic factors--and I made a comment to my father on how "early organisms were self-inducing their own mass extinction, much like humans" and be both laughed our xsses off in the UC Riverside geology loading dock at the comment. And much to my glea, my own once-impromptu joke is actually the research agenda of a renowned paleontoloist I unfortunately was not exposed to at the time... yet. Now that my mind has marinated quite a bit, I even appreciate more the work of Dr. Peter Ward. I hope to run into him again and share with him my thoughts on his "controversial wording," at least in my own opinion.

One more tidbit: past "suicide attempts: include (1) methane poisoning (3.5 billion years ago), the oxygen catastrophe (2.7 billion years ago, what in the hxll is this?), Snowball Earth twice (2.3 billion years ago and 790-630 million years ago), at least 5 hydrogen-sulfide-induced mass extinctions (anoxic events?) such as the great dying 251.4 million years ago... and of course... NOT ON WIKIPEDIA, the HUMAN SET-UP to COLLECTIVE MASS EXTINCTION. Yet, as a wise fisherman in San Diego says, "When all collapses and the house of cards caves in, I will become a hero, because I know how to row my boat and catch fish. I will still be able to feed myself and my community." Amen! The world is going to hxll... and I'm not going to let me take it down with me!

Gaia-Medea

Gaia-Medea (repeated 8 times with a specific melody)

(So) Medea perceived the Planet Half Emtpy
and Gaia viewed the World in Half-n-Half Full
The Phoenix still rose from his few-gathered ashes
Of Death and Rebirth of the Cycles of Both.

Gaia-Medea, Gaia-Medea
The Phoenix still rose from his few-gathered ashes.
Gaia-Medea, Gaia-Medea
Construction still 'merges from blows of collapses.
(repeating chant)

Some Reconstruction from Collapsed Reduction
Are Carvings of Sculptures Could No Longer Endure
Irr'ducible Existence of Phasing Decay--
No longer a toy Evolution's ensured?

Gaia-Medea, Gaia-Medea
The Phoenix still rose from his few-gathered ashes.
Gaia-Medea, Gaia-Medea
Construction still 'merges from blows of collapses.
(repeating chant)

Such is the Powers and Motives of Gaming
Of Scientists and Sleuths in Narrative Framing
But how humans see, but do we really see?
In the cloak or the realms of objectivity?

Gaia-Medea, Gaia-Medea
The Phoenix still rose from his few-gathered ashes.
Gaia-Medea, Gaia-Medea
Construction still 'merges from blows of collapses.
(repeating chant)

I can't believe one short poem has so much BAGGAGE and BACKSTORY!!! Geez! Like SHOOT ME! I still think the poem needs a LOT more work... and a few more ideas placed inside the existing matrix of concepts. At least I am throwing the poem out there as a work in progress!

KEY WORDS: Gaia, Medea, phoenix, poem, song, Dr. Peter Ward, Dr. Manfred Laubichler, metaphor, scale, tattoo, Lauri Green, rival-nonrival, excludable-nonexcludable, reflexive scientist, optimism-pessimism, Dr. Milton Love, disease in the fossil record, suicide, narrative framing, collective suicide, mass accumulation effect, teleology, anthropomorphic, purpose or process, extreme events, shifting baselines, Steve Gaines, Chris Costello, Boris Worm, Al Gore, Inconvenient Truth, Jeremy Jackson, James Lovelock, positivisim-negativism, logical positivism, Steve Pinker, Steve Mojzsis, good enough list for now... geeze!