Dear Organlearners,
Keith Cowan <kcowan@ORION.GLOBALDEN.com> writes
in reply to my
>>.....First, let us think about understanding (comprehension).
>>Our understanding (by emergences and digestions) of any
>>topic, say A, grows as we relate topic A to all our other
>>experiences and perceptions of other topics. Our
>>understanding grows only digestively and not also emergently
>>when we restrict our attention to merely topic A. Hence we will
>>slowly stagnate in our understanding.
>Is this really possible? Can someone actually learn without
>invoking their experiences and perceptions? If this is true,
>it is a new dimension to learning that I never imagined...
Greetings Keith,
I think you have misunderstood me. Please note the use of the word "other"
in the phrase "...as we relate topic A to all our OTHER experiences and
perceptions of other topics...". I should have written "... as we relate
our EXPERIENCES AND PERCEPTIONS OF topic A to all our other experiences
and perceptions of other topics..." to avoid such a misunderstanding.
In authentic learning a person has to invoke personal experiences and
percpetions. Without them authentic learning is not possible. Many people
consider memorisation and regurgitation also as learning. I consider it as
creating a learning resource, but not as authentic learning.
The point which I tried to make with the section which you have quoted, is
that a person understand topic A much better when that topic A becomes
connected to a web which includes as much as possible other topics. This
is why I have written
>>To avoid this stagnation, we must open ourselves up to more
>>and more topics. But we have to do it along a web and not
>>haphazardously. Thus we need a web which encompass all
>>of reality. "Entropy production" affords us one possible way
>>to trace this entire web.....
In answer to that you have written:
>I believe that the study of neural networks and their parallel to
>how human beings learn may be instructive here in plotting the
>web.
Yes, it is definitely another promising way.
But do remember that the functioning of the "electrical circuitry" in
biological neural networks have a phsyico-chemico-biological basis which
involves a complexity of things -- different kinds of super cellular
clusters (hippocampus, thalamus, ..), different kinds of cells (neurons,
neuroglia, ..), different kinds of subcellular organelles (mitochodria,
microtubiles, ...), different kinds of molecules (neorotransmitters,
ensymes, ions, ...). Irreversible thermodynamics is the only discipline
which allows this diversity of phenomena to be connected in one
theoretical framework. (Irreversible thermodynamics is the study of the
Law of Entropy Production and all its consequences.)
>I have a value appreciation of entropy from my days at
>university. For the benefit of this discussion, I have lumped it
>into "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts" and the
>example I would use is the laser. Are we saying that the laser
>phenomenon can happen in the human learning process? That
>would be dramatic!
One of the predictions of Einstein based on quantum mechanics the
possibility of LASERs (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emmision of
Radiation). Only several decades afterwards did Maiman (1960) succeeded
in building the first laser based on Einstein's predictions.
Light consists of packets (quantums) of electromagnetic energy. In
ordinary light these packets have different energy values (different
colours) while there is no harmony between their wave motion. In laser
light all the packets have the same frequency while al the wave crests
move in unison. In other words, ordinary light depicts chaos (the first
manifestaion of entropy production) while laser light depicts order (the
second manifestation) of entropy production. The conversion of ordinary
light to laser light (by stimulated emission) is another bifurcative
phenomenon. Atoms in crystals or molecules absorb ordinary light (their
electrons jump to a higher energy level) until most of them has been
"saturated" with energy. Then, when one of them releases its energy, it
will stimulate under certain conditions the other atoms to also release
their energy in unison. In other words, the atoms "fire coherently" their
energy as photons.
The key concept in laser light is "photons acting together in a COHERENT
and CONSISTENT manner". This is also the key concept in neural networks,
namely the COHERENT and CONSISTENT firing of neural clusters. But this is
also the key concept in irreversible thermodynamics, namely incorporating
all irreversible phenomena in a COHERENT and CONSISTENT manner. Why should
we not strive also in our learning for a similar COHERENCY and
CONSISTENCY? What we really should try to perceive, is how the complexity
of coherency and consistency increases from lasers to neural networks to
irreversible thermodynamics to creativity to learning.
Yes, I am sure that the "laser" (coherency and consistency) phenomenon is
beginning to happen in learning. Many people think that our concern with
entropic forces and fluxes, with chaos and order, with emergences and
immergences, with learning individuals and learning organisations and a
host of other complementarities is merely a novelty which will eventually
wear off.
It was the same with lasers after Maiman's invention substantiated
Einstein's prediction. The far majority of scientists and engineers saw
little applicative value in lasers. It was only a small minority among
them who wrought with their creative minds hundreds of innovative
applications. Today, forty years after Maiman's invention, laser
technology has become formidable in its diversity of applications. Just
think of holograms, optical transfer of information, industrial cutting or
welding of metals and ceramics, land surveys, chemistry, medicine,
leisure, warfare, etc.
Because of the much higher complexity, the "laser" like advancement in
education will be much slower. But it will happen with even more dramatic
results. The one thing which we desperately needed, is a global
communication network. Internet is now a reality. We have advanced to a
new level of wholeness. However, wholeness is just one of seven things
essential to become constructively creative. As the other six
essentialities improve, changes will become more and more dramatic.
Best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>