Dr David McGrath
Spine Physician
MB BS (Hons) FAFOM, RACP, FAFMMMaster of Pain Medicine
Disturbance Environment
Some readers, may prefer to start with the Emotion series of articles.
The environment is the other side of the coin, when trying to understand our organisation, function and success. In the emotion series, we discovered complexity, which could not be solved without looking at the regularity of the environment. We have certain capacities for dealing with disturbances generated by the the environment, but they would be hopelessly overwhelmed, were it not for highly regular environments.
Let's define some features of environments.
1. Innanimate objects, are mostly passive. They are disturbance reflective. If I kick a rock, I will feel a refected disturbance back through my foot. The sun, as a prominant exception, is very active,continuously emitting lght and heat disturbance to the world and all its life.
2. Living entities, can be passive or active, depending on their states of equilibrium. Life can be dormant for a period, only to spring into activity, when the equilibrium is disturbed in a special way. The sleep/awake cycle can be regarded as a dormant/activity cycle. Generally more primitive species,have greater capacity to shut down, when conditions are unfavourable.
There is an overall combined disturbance set for every indentifiable environment, as the sum of activity from all of the passive and active entities. We humans are immersed within this disturbance set, and need to respond adequately, in oder to survive and reproduce. When our responses match the environment, we define this situation as a niche.
We saw in the emotion series, that we have developed
1. General Convergence strategies, where different disturbances lead to the same action
2. Emotional Spectrum strategies, where we partition disturbance control into subsets
If each Convergence set corresponded to a specific emotion and we were in the appropriate emotion, we would have adequate disturbance control.
eg I see a lion, this triggers fear, fear results in climbing up a tree. I see a rhinocerus, this triggers fear, fear results in climbing a tree. Or I see an apple, this triggers hunger, hunger results in food gathering. I see a pear, this triggers hunger, hunger results in food gathering.
Is there anything else we need?
Yes, we can more successful, by cooperative behaviour. As a larger social entity, with many eyes and hands, we can detect more lions,and gather more food. This biological pattern is not unique to us. Many species,have learned the value, of certain shared disturbance patterns.
When social disturbance patterns do develop, there needs to be an internal structure and organisation, capable of handling the increased traffic.
Now a sequence resembles the following. Lion detected, vocalisation made, members of troup alarmed into climbing tree. In other words, the vocalisation, is another convergent input, producing the same fear response and action, as if a lion was detected directly.
As a social network, this is a structural faith in one member, having the ability to detect a lion. We now have a third order social structure. (ref Maturana). Members of the group, can selectively act as
1.an extra sensory component, such as an extra eye and
2.an extra motor component, such as an extra arm.
We humans, have developed, this coperative behaviour to a high degree. We now have this type of behaviour.
1. I detect, we act
2. You detect, we act
This is Divergent Consensual Activity through the group.
or more selectively
1. I detect, you act
2. You detect, I act
This is Precise Consensual Activity within the group
In addition to the more established behaviour of each for themselves. ie I detect, I act.
This overall behaviour, has been called linguistic. (ref Maturana)
Linguistic behaviour, may have remained for millions of years, before the next, important step in our disturbance control.
Some readers, may prefer to start with the Emotion series of articles.
The environment is the other side of the coin, when trying to understand our organisation, function and success. In the emotion series, we discovered complexity, which could not be solved without looking at the regularity of the environment. We have certain capacities for dealing with disturbances generated by the the environment, but they would be hopelessly overwhelmed, were it not for highly regular environments.
Let's define some features of environments.
1. Innanimate objects, are mostly passive. They are disturbance reflective. If I kick a rock, I will feel a refected disturbance back through my foot. The sun, as a prominant exception, is very active,continuously emitting lght and heat disturbance to the world and all its life.
2. Living entities, can be passive or active, depending on their states of equilibrium. Life can be dormant for a period, only to spring into activity, when the equilibrium is disturbed in a special way. The sleep/awake cycle can be regarded as a dormant/activity cycle. Generally more primitive species,have greater capacity to shut down, when conditions are unfavourable.
There is an overall combined disturbance set for every indentifiable environment, as the sum of activity from all of the passive and active entities. We humans are immersed within this disturbance set, and need to respond adequately, in oder to survive and reproduce. When our responses match the environment, we define this situation as a niche.
We saw in the emotion series, that we have developed
1. General Convergence strategies, where different disturbances lead to the same action
2. Emotional Spectrum strategies, where we partition disturbance control into subsets
If each Convergence set corresponded to a specific emotion and we were in the appropriate emotion, we would have adequate disturbance control.
eg I see a lion, this triggers fear, fear results in climbing up a tree. I see a rhinocerus, this triggers fear, fear results in climbing a tree. Or I see an apple, this triggers hunger, hunger results in food gathering. I see a pear, this triggers hunger, hunger results in food gathering.
Is there anything else we need?
Yes, we can more successful, by cooperative behaviour. As a larger social entity, with many eyes and hands, we can detect more lions,and gather more food. This biological pattern is not unique to us. Many species,have learned the value, of certain shared disturbance patterns.
When social disturbance patterns do develop, there needs to be an internal structure and organisation, capable of handling the increased traffic.
Now a sequence resembles the following. Lion detected, vocalisation made, members of troup alarmed into climbing tree. In other words, the vocalisation, is another convergent input, producing the same fear response and action, as if a lion was detected directly.
As a social network, this is a structural faith in one member, having the ability to detect a lion. We now have a third order social structure. (ref Maturana). Members of the group, can selectively act as
1.an extra sensory component, such as an extra eye and
2.an extra motor component, such as an extra arm.
We humans, have developed, this coperative behaviour to a high degree. We now have this type of behaviour.
1. I detect, we act
2. You detect, we act
This is Divergent Consensual Activity through the group.
or more selectively
1. I detect, you act
2. You detect, I act
This is Precise Consensual Activity within the group
In addition to the more established behaviour of each for themselves. ie I detect, I act.
This overall behaviour, has been called linguistic. (ref Maturana)
Linguistic behaviour, may have remained for millions of years, before the next, important step in our disturbance control.
©Copyright 2007 Dr David McGrath. All rights reserved