Spring Bee Hiving Moon
Two projects are pushing themselves forward, aspects of work already underway. After reading a recent batch of articles arguing against a crass materialism and insisting on looking at the world not only through reductionist goggles, I have decided now is a good time to reimmerse myself in the world of emergence. Emergence is a concept that identifies emergent properties, things not predictable by the sum of a thing or processes immediately preceding a particular phenomena.
(Garni_Gorge Symphony of the Stones carved by Goght River at Garni Gorge in Armenia is an example of an emergent natural structure.) wiki, emergence
The example that is most familiar to me is culture. Culture is that society based phenomenon that weaves language, place, kinship, food choice, divisions of work, art, music and play into a whole that shapes the individual, makes them part of something, a culture, larger than themselves. Culture does not follow from an examination of an individual or even a small group of individuals, it only begins to emerge in a larger group over a period of time.
Another and easier to grasp emergent phenomenon is the transition of a caterpillar to a butterfly. Am I a butterfly or am I a caterpillar dreaming I’m a butterfly?
This also relates to the complexity movement in science. Science proceeds by breaking things down to their most basic components, then discerning law-like behaviors. Physics is the paradigmatic science in this respect. But there are many phenomena, like emergence, that appear not as things are reduced to their simplest parts, but as things combine to create more and more complex materials and organisms. Science has historically ignored those areas because they are difficult to quantify and/or difficult to study using usual scientific methods.
I’ve flirted with learning these two areas: emergence and complexity theory, but have never devoted the necessary time to it. It’s time. This fits in my reimagining my faith project.
The second is broadening the scope of my learning about Ovid, his time, the Augustan period, other tellings of the same myths Ovid works with, and Augustan poetry more generally. This is in service of the commentary/translation I plan to begin in earnest after this growing season ends and of a big novel still forming itself.
