PatternSmithing Alliance Blogs

In order to sense resonance clearly, it is my belief that a mind should be able to achieve a state called Unconditioned Consciousness, if only for a moment (which at times is all that is possible). The conditioning of consciousness is necessary (that is a question) to manage the complexity of the physical and mental domains — the usefulness and utility of conditioning can be observed by how well we can achieve such a wide array of useful and varied functions in our daily personal and professional lives (sometimes simultaneously) while still having a large reserve of attention available for achieving so much more.  I like Mihaly Csikzenthalyi’s classification of attention as psychic energy – and the organization of attention down coherent paths of consciousness as psychic order [whilst the opposite is considered psychic entropy].  As for ordering consciousness, a good percentage of learned behaviors (including reflexive reactions) order the flow of consciousness for a period of time and interestingly enough, reflexive reactions can likewise organize consciousness automatically to achieve goals (an often referred to example is that of driving a car between destinations without any awareness at all of the task at hand, while thinking about or attending to other things).

In order to describe how to achieve Unconditioned Consciousness, it is necessary to talk about the relationship between awareness, perception, and attention more deeply.  For a first slice at a model and analogy, let us picture that attention is the currency of consciousness[1] (which gives new meaning to the phrase ‘pay attention’).  Regardless of whether we are aware of the these transactions of consciousness, they are still occurring moment by moment.  Awareness applied reflectively to the contents of consciousness can be thought of a sort of meta-attention, that is attention about the target of attention, or where attention is being absorbed.  In order to suspend (and later rework) the automatic triggering of reflexive reactions, it is necessary to reach awareness of all reflexive reactions.

Early work on static pattern engineering examined two boundary conditions of interest:  Unconditioned Consciousness and Complete Absorption of Attention Without Awareness.  In the latter case, which takes many forms, I was most interested in cases of extreme depression and catatonia:  In catatonia, attention is completely absorbed – none is available – and when questioned later, those that went through this state have no recollection (awareness) of what the contents of consciousness were nor what was external to them (thus attention wasn’t attached to perception).  Nearly everyone would agree that this state is one of complete degeneration.  Short of medication that alleviates or changes the state of consciousness, how do people in this state move out of it?  The solution is a bit counter-intuitive: Awareness (which is completely or nearly nonexistent) is activated and then gradually expanded to encompass the content of consciousness[2].  Of course, the state of the content of consciousness is that nothing is moving – the economy of consciousness is completely frozen, attention is absorbed in apparently nothing, and not even perception is properly processed by attention[3].  Nonetheless, the gradual widening of awareness restores the flow of attention toward perception and gradually awareness detects the slow, painful flow of thoughts (which nearly always have a negative slant). Through this gradual expansion of awareness, the mind seems to reorder itself, allowing attention to work once again as the currency of consciousness.

I wanted to illustrate the extreme boundary case of Complete Absorption of Attention Without Awareness and the mechanisms that lead away from it to state quite simply what Unconditioned Consciousness is:  Complete Absorption of Attention With Complete Awareness.  Consciousness often operates with a mixture of reflexive reactions operating at a threshold below awareness (or at least only partially illuminated by awareness): to move toward unconditioned consciousness, it is necessary to follow the same mechanism of applying awareness as described above to expand awareness to the contents of consciousness.  It is easiest to apply awareness to perception and then to expand it across the entire content of consciousness.   Just as described in the previous post in this series, proprioception of thought (the sixth sense) is possible via invoking awareness.

In the next post in this series, I will continue the journey toward unconditioned consciousness (or complete absorption of attention with complete awareness) and talk further about reflexive reactions and dissolving, activation energy, sensing resonance, and finally resonant reactions.

[1] I know the skeptical mind will immediately transfer to this footnote: To answer any questions and to point out the immediately obvious flaws in this analogy, I will give the more expanded model for completeness sake: static patterns and reflexes are the currency of consciousness while attention is the current of consciousness (when it is causing an ordered flow of consciousness rather than just being absorbed).  Nonetheless, the model used above effectively illustrates the intended point.

[2] Please note that I am not simply stating that the complex treatment of degenerative mental states can be abolished and replaced with ‘awareness therapy’ nor that this works in all cases; however, this is based on studies and cases where a reversal of catatonic states and extreme depression have been reversed by the application of awareness by the volition of the person suffering this state.

[3] This state is intensely interesting in the sense that is attention is completely bound. All of this is more completely described and diagrammed in the upcoming book (sorry title of the book is still pending).

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David Bohm, in a series of talks (that later became the book Thought as as System) once said that we should delineate between ‘thoughts’ and ‘thinks’.   Thoughts are former products of consciousness that are stored in memory and passed around from person to person, while ‘thinks’ are products of consciousness created in the present moment with active mentation (or which consicousness is actively operating on even if former products of consciousness).  Bohm’s clever wordplay has finally led me to a perfect catchy term for describing the far less catchy term ’static pattern’:  thingk. That is, a static pattern, in the form we are most interested in for application can be called a thingk.

Thingk is a union of the words think and thing, and when pronounced sounds deceptively identical to think.  I like it because it embeds a lot of semantic hints that convey what a static pattern is:

• The first word in static pattern, static, comes from Greek and Latin roots for standing, remaining, and implies persistence.  When something persists, we usually identify it (generically) as a thing.
• When you first encounter (or create) a static pattern that resonates with you, it has the effect of gathering such awareness and attention in consciousness that it seems less like a thought and more like a thing.  It usually invokes active mentation and becomes a think in Bohmian terms.  This duality, as it grows, begins to qualify it as a thingk (in the cognitive domain).
• In the physical or virtual domains, before that thingk is manifested, it is just a thought ( think ); however, as you, the creator, drive it toward manifestation, it becomes not just a thought ( think ) but also a thing that exists (stands, remains, persists) with some degree of physical persistence (depending on degree of virtuality).  Yet, behind that now existent thing is the thought(s) that resonate with the creator such that they evoke active mentation and thus are still think(s).  Thus, the manifested static pattern is a thingk spread across multiple domains (cognitive, physical, virtual).
• If you encounter a thing that you can perceive with your senses, there are thoughts that brought it to creation.  When these thoughts and the thing itself invoke resonance in a perceiver, it can be now be described as a thingk.
• When you find a talented individual with a personal connection to the work they create, you can certainly be assured that everything they create has the quality of also being a thingk.
• If you begin to approach the things you work with with the intent to turn them into thingks (or to change your work so that the things you work with have a higher rate of probably of being thingks for you), or you begin to have the intent to find thoughts that resonate enough to become thingks in consciousness and then reified thingks in the cognitive, virtual, and/or physical domains, then the nature of your creative work is transformed.

I intend to not only use this term for describing static patterns in a more easily graspable semantic framework, but also intend to use it drive the fluxpoints project further.  A fluxpoint, by criteria, will be in fact a thingk; however, I am actively working on a partner project to actively get people moving from thought => think => thingk, which will ensure a natural evolution path toward turning those thingks into FluxPoints as well as physical, virtual, and/or cognitive creations.  This will most likely be a free community web site that will allow for active work on static patterns (or thingks) with the intention of bringing them about as creations.

Until then, I still prefer to use the technical term static pattern, but after discussing this more compact and expressive reduction with people who have talked to me about SPs for years, it immediately catches on and they finally ‘get it’.  Nonetheless, this particular journal about static pattern engineering will probably continue to use the technical term – I intend to post a link to the community site once I get it going and that site will probably make scarce use of the technical term, favoring the one described in this post.

Thanks for reading.

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…The virtual side of static pattern engineering is going to take further form in a new project codenamed ‘FluxPoints’. A fluxpoint will be a virtual and active representation of a static pattern (or an aggregation of static patterns) on the Internet…

[From a previous post]

Formerly called the ‘endpoints’ project, after further development of the idea I have renamed it to the FluxPoints project. The endpoints idea started as a thought experiment: provide a way for an individual or group to secure an authorative identifier for a static pattern (or aggregation of static patterns) [1] and:

• represent the evolving structure on the world wide web in multiple rendered formats depending on consumer [data]
• provide a common set of framework operations against the static pattern [behaviors]

I can modestly say this initial concept was nothing more than morphing together a few existing ideas that have developed over the last two decades. The endpoints idea was intended to take the web service endpoint concept and apply it toward static patterns at the service layer with all types of interesting convolutions of the usual infrastructure surrounding web services [2].

This first phase of thinking, which encompasses ‘releasing’ or publishing a static pattern, is still going to be part of the process (with some as yet undisclosed modifications to the way it is represented) — this notion of allowing a pattern’s representation to become static is enforced by the criteria that it:

• has an authorative and established identifier that gives it an identity
• has a physical location that hosts it [3]
• has a structure and set of behaviors that define it, otherwise it is neither active nor static

This last criterion, which defines whether the pattern [virtual] representation (not necessarily the underlying pattern itself) is static also defines whether it can be active introduces the notion of active pattern. In consciousness (the cognitive domain), a static pattern becomes active when cognition is actively operating with that pattern to produce transformations in the pattern itself or other patterns. If the sole purpose of the endpoints project was simply to reflect the products of consciousness as virtual representations, then endpoints would be a proper name; however, the purpose of static pattern engineering is to operate on and transform these patterns — in the transition states they are active patterns. With the tremendous potential of a global network, if the endpoint were designed to release the pattern in a way that allowed it to be activated by bidirectional information flow according to its orientation and exposure then there would be many opportunities for the pattern to become an active pattern (not just for consumer but for creator and aggregators). Thus, we are most interested in the flux through the endpoint — and the sole purpose of the endpoint is to serve as a FluxPoint.

I have most likely become somewhat vague in the -how- this last part will be achieved. This is for several reasons – first and foremost is because I wanted to announce the initial ideas (endpoints) but not necessarily reveal the whole progression since then. Nonetheless, I can assure you that this project will be an interesting experiment that I hope will generate very positive results, not just for the field itself but also for the people that use it. [Insert typical grandiose vision statements here]

[1] analogous to a domain name in concept but not at all in syntax

[2] for instance, web services are usually unique type definitions that usually delegate to a well-known data source while an endpoint represents a unique manifestation using a standard type definition with variable data sources (often other endpoints)

[3] in the first implementation, this will be a hosting location I will provide; however, the infrastructure will be designed from the bottom up that this location can vary for each endpoint

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Static Pattern Engineering has roots in engineering, chemistry, computer science, and cognitive science. The two most useful and powerful constructs from SPE (and I could argue, in these associated fields) are those of the transform and operator (in order of decreasing power).  An operator is an embodiment (in the physical, virtual, or cognitive domain(s)) of a function that, when acting on a static pattern in a certain state, results in another state without transformation.  A transform is an operator that results in transformation.  The result of a transform is a change to the identity of the static patterns involved in the operation — often the operation is not reversible (and in many instances it is not even desirable to reverse a transformation).

The difference between an operator and a transform is analogous to that between a physical and chemical change in chemistry — in the former, the operation changes the form or state of the substance(s) without changing their underlying composition or identity. In physical or chemical changes, it is interesting to take note of the role of energy in the change:  if the amount of energy doesn’t meet or exceed the activation energy required for a chemical reaction for the system (defined by the reactants, catalysts, and surrounding environment), then a chemical change will not happen but often a physical change will.

In static pattern engineering, our primarily interest in operators and transforms occurs in the cognitive and virtual domains.  When applied to consciousness, operators (and the operations they embody) are useful for  studying effects and for leading static patterns (design concepts, knowledge systems, representations of physical or virtual systems, etc. etc.) through changes for refinement and toward reification in the destination domain.  Transforms (and the transformations they embody) often result in the creation of something entirely new in consciousness.

The role of resonance is powerful, because aided by resonance, ordinary operations can become transformations (similar to how heat or mechanical energy along can lead to a chemical versus physical change).  This fact is why resonance (and the discovery of points of resonance in each individual) is important in the application of static pattern engineering processes:  resonance often invokes transformations in consciousness.  Therefore, ordinary operators discovered in the study of static pattern engineering, when applied to resonant material, can become transforms.  Unfortunately, at this point in time, there haven’t been any absolute universal transforms discovered (although a couple of candidates are under consideration) — that is, operators that are guaranteed to produce transformation in any system with any individual(s) involved.  The discovery of these universal transforms (or at least close approximations to them) is one of the top five goals of SPE.

Unlike purely mathematical constructs in a computational system or purely physical agents in a chemical or physical system, a transform or operator is as much about the underlying operation embodied as it is about the construct that embodies it.  I will delve into more details in this series about this enigmatic statement; however, for consideration, note that a person can act as an embodiment of an operation or transformation.  I bring this up as a complex case to note that at times, what apparently seems to embody a transformational event or operation can be mistaken as possessing the ability to produce that operation (and the transformational event) when it simply provided it at that moment.  Because this requires a much larger discussion about operation embodied and embodiment of operation, I will postpone that until later.

Thanks for reading and for private comments and emails I have received — please feel free to contact me at =Joel.Kotarski for discussion or collaboration.

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I honestly believe I will be working on SPE my entire life, and am prepared to do so; however, a life goal of mine (i.e., before I die) is to see the knowledge base of the field (core theory as well as tried and true mapping of it to case studies and implementations) developed enough so that three roles – actual professions – can emerge as viable careers for the 21st century. As I continually work on static pattern engineering, I intend to work within all three of the roles to further define their domains as well as the output these roles produce in their differing capacity is essential to the development of the field.

In order to introduce these roles, I need to talk briefly about what a static pattern is without going into much detail (a separate set of posts will be required for that***). Briefly, a static pattern is a product of consciousness[1] that has reached a degree of coherence[2] that it can persist (stay, remain) within one or more realm/domain (see virtual, cognitive, and physical in the first post on this site) or across these three domains. [ Static pattern engineering seeks to give us the ability to further operate on and transform these units of consciousness in extremely effective ways. Note that we already operate on and transform these patterns as part of our creative lives, our vocations, and perhaps even our spiritual lives; however, SPE seeks to greatly enhance the process toward expected effects as well as results. ] A static pattern can — and will — remain in one or more of the domains by its very definition, especially if an act of will has given a high degree of virtuality — that is, it has been persisted by some means into the physical realm with a high cognitive component to it; however, SPE concerns itself with –activating– the pattern (making it an active pattern) using resonance, operators, and transforms and bringing innovative results and effects back to the domain of origin (often cognitive) as well as the other domains where a pattern can manifest (virtual, physical, and/or cognitive again).

Now, for this discussion it is important to note that these products of consciousness that have coherence often don’t take an immediately analyzable form (so they can be mapped between languages and domains at will), and expressing a pattern, whether by embedding it into physical matter (giving it a higher degree of virtuality) or directly manifesting it into the world (creating it), and the resonant language[3] used to do so start to give form to these three roles/professions I see emerging.

My previous stub post on Artist, Artisan, Artificer finally comes into play in this discussion as well. The act of expressing/manifesting a pattern into the world usually can be categorized as the work of an artisan, artificer, or an artist. The label of artisan is usually associated with a craftsperson or skilled worker who can usually do a standardized operation or piece together standardized operations to produce an instantiation of a desired template or a unique combination or evolution of previous templates. The label of artificer is usually associated with skilled devising, inventing, construction, design of something entirely new or a more complex derivation/transformation of previous creations (thus, implying a longer time scale) but will nonetheless become a template. The label of artist is usually associated with someone who has imagination and noticeable talent in a particular domain that can produce something (through sometimes more mysterious and less-defined processes) that may be described as aesthetically pleasing, unique, original, such that the concept of template is utterly meaningless – it is an individual act of willed creation.

• PatternSmiths will forge a static pattern into the physical, virtual, and/or cognitive domains based on their highly refined resonant language. The act of PatternSmithing itself will be shared by all three disciplines — and actually I dream of a day when every single person with knowledge, experience, and associated resonance in some language can be qualified as a PatternSmith of some type. The desire for ‘every person’s SPE’ that this represents doesn’t detract from the pattern-smithing role in the least or elevate the others; rather, if the engineering role does its job properly (see below), the vast array of fields (vocation[4]) and resonances possible will allow for everyone to become a skilled craftsperson to some degree or another. This fact in itself will confirm the success of the entire body of research and application for static pattern engineering — the patternsmithing is the application of the field.
• Static Pattern Architects will draw on many domains of knowledge, experience, and language to conceptualize and transmit the design for large scale projects that straddle the cognitive, virtual, and physical domains. Working closely with Static Pattern Engineers, an inspiring and innovative design will emerge that will be further improved by the design aspects of SPE’s processing and collaborational technology for identifying the larger context the creation exists in across all three domains as well as the resources that can improve its implementation and continued existence/evolution in aspects of each domain. Because the Architect is examining all three domains in the design, he or she is in fact working not only at a physical level (as we have currently with traditional architecture), nor at just a computerized level (as we have with software architecture), but at a cognitive level and considering -all- virtual manifestations (e.g., creation of a business model is virtual, or defining a set of publications, or designing ways of disseminating the requisite knowledge, etc.).
• Static Pattern Engineers work on multiple dimensions across the field of static pattern engineering and it is going to take a separate post*** to enumerate all the various aspects this will entail, but briefly it will involve managing the movement of knowledge and matching resonances across multidisciplinary teams to actualize (engineer) a complex product that can span multiple domains, operating/facilitating the process of collaboration and innovation in analysis, design, and implementation phases of that product, serving as a subject matter expert in one or more specialties (which they resonate highly with) within the domain of engineering, cognitive science, or computer science to serve as a contributing team member in analysis, design, and implementation phases of that product, developing artifacts which allow for more effective execution of static pattern engineering processes, developing tools which allow for improved detection of resonances (and thus location/training of qualified PatternSmiths), driving teams toward higher challenges and ensuring a high rate of innovation, and doing experiments and/or research which will advance the field on a continual basis.

The important thing to note is that all three of these roles at any point in time be acting as an artist, artificer, or artisan — the large difference between them is the granularity and function of their work (what they are focusing on). A PatternSmith could
in fact be a full-time artist and producing nothing but one of a kind, original productions in any domain, or they could be a craftsperson (artisan) that produces templated results with skill, or even they could be called upon for their artificer skills in producing something unique and innovative. Additionally, the PatternSmith’s varied resonance may allow them to serve in all three capacities across different domains or knowledge areas. Likewise, in their larger scale context, a SPA (StaticPatternArchitect) may use (and often will be required to use) a blend of all three modes of working to produce their initial and continued design, and the output itself will probably be considered a blend of the three — carrying out its refinement and implementation will likewise require a blend of the three in most cases, which the SPE (StaticPatternEngineer will facilitate, as well as initial design). Unlike the other two, however, the StaticPatternEngineer will be –required– to use a blend of all three. He or she has to be a skilled artisan in using the technology for matching resonances, moving knowledge, or invoking collaborations throughout a distributed system of thought – there is no time for innovation or art for this extremely important functional need; however, there will be a need for an artificer skill set in the unique design constraints of each product where only the static pattern engineer will have the requisite ability to perceive and identify unique approaches for that team. I will elaborate further on the SPE’s mapping to these labels in their activities, as well as the artistic output, in a future post***.

I hope you enjoyed reading about this as much as I enjoyed writing it — for some who have asked me questions, I hope it also gives a _much_ deeper glimpse into what this whole field is going to be about. Until next time I post, I wish you the best!
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[1] Don’t be mislead into thinking this is restricted to only human consciousness. More on this later.

[2] I literally mean this in both the sense of coherence we see in physics (explaining how thought patterns can have this kind of coherence requires a much larger discussion) as well as a sense of cohesiveness (with other patterns, with the consciousness hosting it, with a requirement/necessity (perceived or real)) that literally ensures the pattern’s existence.

[3] In a paper on resonance, titled “The Power of Resonance“, I worked on in 2001 with Christopher Galtenberg, we carefully qualified language this way:

In our framework, language serves a critical two-fold mechanism: it converts experience into explicit, transmittable knowledge and transmits knowledge to invoke experiences. Language [thus] can take many forms, and in this framework, fits this broader definition: A language arises from a set of elements allowing transmission (expression) and reception of knowledge and/or experience.

The paper went on to then qualify resonant language, which I will do later in a future post***.

[4] I hope one day we can return to vocation as a calling (where really resonance represents the increasing call itself), and that a vocation, as a way of life, can encompass diverse fields, knowledge, associations, experiences, and possibly roles, as resonance implies a –set of callings– rather than just a singular one. Then we can have career-crafting as an ongoing process.

*** I am just explicitly marking my promises for posts now as a reminder to myself.

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