Tag Archives: change

predicting pandoflux: a natural shift in Artificial sentiments on Emerging planetary patterns.

While browsing LinkedIn one can quickly sense the site is filled with professionalized visionaries professing the future.

This is the wonderful imagination we can expect from entrepreneurs, inventors, innovators, some makers, a few or more artists, a number of artisans, a whole lot of movers & shakers and policy makers’ think-tank spokespersons, who all frequent this social platform.

These days and months, since the end of 2019 into 2020, I have been noticing a shift into how that “just-a-flu” morphed into an emergency for a relatively few, into a pandemic for some more and into a fore-bearer of dramatic change to the human species, mapped without or with climate change (as an instigator of epidemics).

For some this has “suddenly” appeared the last two weeks or so. For others — that is, for those who are global nomads or global citizens, anyone from around the world living in China yet with loved-ones around the world; any Chinese citizen living in the world — this is now going into its 4th month and counting. For even fewer this was, now in retrospect, foreseeable; or so does the power of probability theory offer us.

Making a forecast, in the spirit of this biased opinion piece here, I foresee to be influenced in an emotionally heightened manner, as it has been, for another 3 months. That’s a very personal event of 6 to 7 months; for each one of those who fit the above category. That is, if I’m allowed being a bit too self-centered, not anticipating the passing of anyone close in these coming months because of virus-related complications.

Then there will be the echoes and reflections (and hopefully as little fall-out as possible) following this. Perhaps adding another 6 months? I’m just using a wild unsubstantiated version of prediction. I will call this my not so impressive “prediction” of the “Pandoflux”. Is a world of, and a world in, change a progressive world? Or, is progress what we do with change in relation to others and their context?

My predicting is not impressive to me since I also sense that flux seems simply inherent; even at a cellular or deeper level; even if we are imposingly-conserving. The latter too will pass, while its mechanism seems ever there?

Although I am very serious when I smile, is this attitude implied here too flippant or is it rather a watered-down version of a Taoist view on the world? At the least, I want you to think with me. Give it a moment.

Things will never be the same again…. we will never go back to how it was.” Previously, in a pre-pandemic sense, such statements seemed to come with an undertone of optimism and progressive thinking. Now, peri-pandemic, it sounds as if driven by fear and loss. It does not have to be, though.

Again, without wanting to be callous nor frivolous, nothing ever is the same and one can never ever go back to how something was before. That is, unless the affect of the memory of a change can be wiped from any mind that has been zapped back into a previous state. You know, like a reset button and a factory preset as the one suffered by Buzz Lightyear, in one of the Toystory animation franchises. Buzz too could not forget his previous setting.

Humanity and its events, however, are not a cartoon. It might seem like one, at times, but this tends to smell of sarcasm, disdain or at least of irony at the awkward moment. Indeed, perhaps this writing runs that risk as well.

When is the right moment to speak of change? Where and by who? When can we observe markers of change? What is such marker but a trigger of a parameter in a probability calculation of an environment that has always been in flux and has thrived on change?

In that regard, and as a side note, is a Machine Learning application an agent of change? Is it rather an agent in a process of corroboration that change is inherently part of the human experience and nature, as formalized via the field of advanced Calculus? Is perhaps such an AI application a neurotic obsession with control and its implied hanging onto a veil of pseudo-fixed and comforting insight?

After all, is a pattern not a pattern because it does not change? Or does it? What shall we call a pattern that is not to be recognized as a fixed pattern; chaos or rather, life?

I choose the latter.

When some individuals reminisce over the obvious how-it-was and the yet unknown changes to come, which dynamic pattern do they envision? A Chaotic one or one of LIFE?

In the struggles we face, whichever type, form, degree or function, we humans do want a sense of meaning as to the changes or the continuity these struggles imply. We make choices. We choose and recognize patterns.

This choice is there even if it is the meaning-giving idea of letting-go, breathing-out, moving-on and not looking for or clinging-on meaning in one attribute of a struggle in question. That is meaning. It could specifically be concerning if the meaning-giving labeling turns out as a painfully meaning-less one; driving one to the brink of or into madness and despair. That too is meaning. Meaning-giving is geared towards giving a future to a past event or to an event imagined becoming a past.

It is equally so as it is with communication: there is no such thing as no communication . One can not not-communicate with one’s brain; that meaning-giving thing between our ears. Even if we are trying to delegate this meaning-creation to the artificial realm of Machine Learning . This meaning-giving is inescapable.

On the other multiple ends of this 4-dimensional spectrum (yes, try to imagine this in a 3D high fidelity manner with a variable changing attribute over time), we can either observe small-minded yet large-sounding conspiracies of contrasting flavors and we can also see analyses of large Geo-political potentials and paradigm shifts.

This morning I was presented with a snippet of just that; the latter that is. The former is too irritating to me, while I do care about its extreme dangers.

In the earliest hours of the morning, I wake up very early, I was listening to BBC News World Service and its Newshour show. In it the astronomic numbers of applications for unemployment benefits in the USA were discussed. The data indicated about 10 million individuals were “shed” from their previous employment . Yes, “shed,” a word used in reporting as if humans are prickly needles from an ever-green pine tree that surprisingly looses its convoluted leaves. They and those without health insurance in the USA were discussed and then this was followed by an interview with Noam Chomsky. He was introduced as the academic who has “a radical solution to the economic shock” yet, who himself has repeatedly, and in this interview, rebutted this by stating that neo-liberalism is the radical paradigm here.

The episode, Newshour-20200402-USJoblessClaimsHitNewRecord, was retrieved on April 3, 2020 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w172x2ylvg5rx9l

I suppose there is a reason why this morning the BBC, of all newscasters, suddenly interviewed Professor Noam Chomsky… no longer only Ms. Amy Goodman does so…

Later that same morning, I was sent a second item. It was a audio-video recording of an interview given by the present-day governor of New York State.

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Yes, one competes in a free market construct. Is this “free,” though? Is the following forecast, here below, of not-so-much-change too esoteric? Could it, in the end, be the common USA citizen, with house loans and student loans, in the billions, and some of whom can not afford insurance, that shall pay for this? Is this an attribute of the so-called change we have to see happen (from our distance)?

This pandemic could very well be a massive shift in some human consciousness that previously did not see the issues we are facing. Now, that is without linking this to climate change which has been done, preceding the pandemic in that it was suggested that with climate alterations pandemics might become more frequent.

It might be that the idea of nothing ever being the same again, which some are talking about, is the re-delegation of education to the parents turned teacher, on top of their in-house distant working, their gig-economy project, their home-cooked meals and their in-house floor-mopping.

Isn’t human civilization (at least quantatitively) perceived as great because its members have invented the process of delegation? At least, one person is not looking forward to this change in delegational power:

Or, the foreseen change might be that new EdTech APP we can innovate on with increased human-originated data collection and Machine Learning processes in support of the mother company and its marketing or advertising-placement strategies.

Will it be a never-seen-before change in child-like bickering, finger-pointing, belly-button staring and saddening forms of competing between (nation) states?

Or, is it a change in a form derived from that which people such as Noam Chomsky are speaking of ?

Humans are living proof of the possibility of a multitude of patterns in change and in changing patterns. Surely changing patterns of and in life are as well. Life and lives without meaning and meaning without life and lives, are not the changes a human needs.

Luckily for you, I cannot offer you any of these or other such changes, nor am I a forecaster.

I breathe out. At the least, I can offer one constant of hope: be well and do well, my fellow earthling.

In-Between Languages

Learning and using multiple languages enables one to play in-between the languages. Since I believe (and I am not alone) that languages exist intertwined with cultures, one is hence also playing in-between cultures; perhaps unwittingly so.

…our earliest pets, totems, talisman or mascots?

This in-between interaction enables (at least me and, as I observe, also some others) a form of playful language (usage and construction) that can only exist and be understood by those enabled to be moving in-between them.

At least metaphorically (but I sense this is very practical or pragmatic as well), this is allowing the player to stand on the proverbial door sill. This is in turn allowing the player (limited in this writing here by the highly constraining, linear nature of language constructs, such as sentences in paragraphs) to be looking, at least, at the one language usage on one side and at the other on the other side (if applying the play between two languages only, while multiple language usage is plausible as well). The player then can be “tasting” (and, simultaneously, be creating ) the linguistic mixture, as an observer and producer. The player can do so in-between two or more languages.

This awareness is not particularly new nor is it unique.

For instance, in China’s broadcasts, of its voice radio performance art, one can, at times, listen to wordsmiths playing in-between English and Chinese. For instance, they might use an English word or two that sound like a very different Chinese word. Though, the audience or creators might be “limited” to Mandarin and some basic English, nevertheless, it is just that: a creative fluidity in-between languages (for the moment ignoring the motivation or the perception thereof, in this particular reference).

An example between Dutch and Chinese could be this: “poesje“, which is Dutch for “small cat“. It sounds, via slight shifts in the Dutch pronunciation, as /bu-shi/ , which could, besides conjuring a rude English wording, also be shifted into the Chinese “bù shì” (不是). These two Chinese characters stand for “not” and “is“, or slightly more freely translated, as “not yes“. In turn this could be used to mean something as “not“, “no“, “it isn’t“…

If “bù shì poesje” then what is it?

I sense one can see this activity as an analogy of potential processes and actual evolution in any creation or (in-between) any framework. One might perceive these as experiments of shifts and “perversions” (depending on one’s “political” stance) into innovations or into new and different languages or into potentially new meaning-giving. This could occur, at least, at the level of the individual or in-between a few initiated individuals. This movement could transcode from the absurd into the formal and vice versa.

Is this a movement similar to that one person’s crazy idea that can only become accepted if a second person endorses it (preferably a second person otherwise unassociated with the first person) and then becomes a movement by the undefined masses following it? I now see a thought turned into a (set of meaning-imbued) word(s), turned into a culture.

As a sidenote: 

"Framework" here is meant as a collection of thought creations (e.g. a connection of associated concepts).

For instance, I, as one individual, over my life span, have cognitively collected a number of frameworks. Such Frameworks, I sense, are semiotic and thus have linguistic or meaning-giving features. I perceive them as being cultural in nature.

I feel these, to me, do not simply have to consist of isolated memorized words. I imagine these might consist of unclear networks of not well-defined emotions, blurry definitions, attached to opaque images, other words and fading experiences. In turn these interconnected meaning-giving items are vaguely set into complexes of intuitions.

I feel, for me, these sets form an undefined number of frameworks in my mind. Some seem fluid and temporary while others seem more stubborn and fixated. While some frameworks feel as if overlapping, others are contradictory to one another, adjacent or seemingly entirely unrelated, except then by one attribute: they are my metaphorical constructs in my brain.

I use these frameworks as references to make sense of the world around me; ever so transiently. I also explore the spaces in-between frameworks.

One such framework is my vague and abstract conception of one language; let's say English. Another framework could be another language.

Such a framework could also be my adoption and adaptation of a set of believes one, and one's community, holds or a set of habits, or attributes recognized as memes of one human collective (e.g. a community or a set of ideas held in one's brain), etc. For instance: the Flemish, the Beijingers, the Belgians, the Europeans, The Han, The Asians, The people on the subway, the people in the building I work or those where I live, The people in a news clip, etc.; a set of cultural frameworks.

As another example, a framework I hold could also be built around the concept of "data" or a specific set of data. For instance: the number of people who suffered fatal or other injuries, say, due to road vehicles, let's say in the USA from one specific year to another.

I imagine this in-between play as potentially being an example (with practical implications) of Deleuze’s territorialization, de-territorialization and re-territorialization. Therefor the in-between is always a becoming rather than a being. I also see it as a possible candidate example of fluidity, and of inherent changes that occur beyond one or two or more fixed frameworks one might hold on to (e.g. the use and learning of one language only).

I sense this in-between activity, its existence, the existence of the potential links, the existence of the potential shifts in meaning and usage, are a collection of human output (somewhere floating between being willingly or being serendipitously expressed) which are too often ignored, and I dare state, which might have non-party political consequences.

As a second sidenote: 

"Political" here is meant as how we act as citizens among each other within the "polis"; i.e. the city of our daily activities and power-relations.

I sense these in-between expressions might highlight or unveil or at least create imaginations about power-relations and the shift thereof across languages.

I admit, they make me, rather then perhaps you, think about this. Granted, possibly this tells me more about my own obsessions with power-relations rather than it stating anything substantial or corroborative about what I think to perceive.

That stated, please let us continue to allow the process of potential discovery by means of initially unsubstantiated imagination and naive wonder.

Yes, for the moment I opt to sense that one can best achieve this exploration (either in daily personal experiences and poetics, or as a stepping stone towards rigorous analysis) with and in-between any number of languages and any number of other languages and dialects (yes, dialects, since some claim that “language” is a dialect “with an army”…) .

The experience of an (intangible) in-between space has been on my mind for as long as I remember. Especially the etymology as observable in-between two distinct official languages yet, with some degree of common ancestry.

For instance, the present-day English word ” mascot” or “mascotte” (in Dutch) compared to the Spanish word “mascota“. The latter means “pet” (English) or “huisdier” (Dutch), which again translated to English might make for a (to me) fun new word: “house-animal“…

In a moment of associated digression: Is a couch potato a species of “house-animal“? …

…” My favorite pet is a potato . It likes staying home, lie on the couch and watch a movie. It’s such a house-animal; I enjoy petting my potato.” …

–the pet owner (pulled from my imagination).


potato, “house-animal”

Coming back to the main storyline: one touches on the semantic realm of “talisman” (i.e. “mascot” & “mascotte“) while the other touches on the realm of companionship for a human and this of an animal, other than human (yes, imagine…), for instance, a dog or a tarantula (i.e. “mascota“) .

If we were to dig a bit deeper we could argue that both (“mascotte” and “mascota“) are about companionship yet the intuitively comparable power-relation might be different, or is it?

I am excitingly concerned about how one could achieve this comparison in a quantitative manner, besides my often-faulty yet beloved intuition, which I am presently applying. I also wonder, in a dance with an old polemic, whether we, as humans, should only value the quantitative (notice, please, my stress on ‘only’). For sure, this entire in-between language is not quantatative in nature; it’s pure nurture coming naturally to me. (I hope you can read the serious irony here).

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Coming back to the in-between language play: the word “mascot” can semantically and denotatively (i.e. as being,
in accordance with fact or the primary meaning of a term“) be mapped with the word “talisman” which, in turn, can be mapped with words such as the nouns “charm” or “amulet“.

Some claim that a “mascota” has a “master” (…you still don’t see power-play at play? Think about the use of “pet” in relation to excessive loyalty of an employee to a superior); does a mascot have a master?

In some storytelling I have noticed that some iteration playing with the concept of the talisman also links the mascot to a master, as a pet is to one.

One can see the animation series, based on a game, entitled “Wakfu” for such narrative . In it the character named “Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove” is emboldened by his powerful luck-bringing sword …and as I notice how a charm or talisman is applied in narratives, these are not always charming nor offering good luck at all times. Yes, as could a cat, a mascot can scratch you the wrong way!

The offered mapping with the word “talisman” and with “Wakfu“, mentioned above, might be acceptable if one could allow for an imaginary and literary “good” demon-possessed item to be seen as a “talisman” or as a bringer-of-luck, does then my pet give me extra power?

Some teams do have, for instance, a living pet dog as a mascot. Moreover, and ever so slightly in dissonance, notice that etymologically, the word mascot is claimed to have associations with “witch”, “wizard”, “nightmare”, “mask” and “black”). Are my pets not what they seems to be?

While in “actual” life, I have heard of, someone carrying a plastic chain-restaurant’s spoon to a sports match, believing it allows their favorite team to win, in Wakfu it is, for instance, a consciously possessed sword.

This is obviously fantasy narrative –I mean, Wakfu. Yes, one might consider the above-mentioned spoon equally fantastical. Yet, this latter reference is a factual example. This is while perhaps one might feel more accepting towards a scarf or a never-washed t-shirt instead of a spoon.

By the way, in the spirit of this text, you might like to know that in Wakfu, these demons which posses linearly-practical objects, turning the items into charms of sorts, are called “shushu(s)”. Interestingly–talking about in-between languages– “Shūshu” ( 叔叔), in Chinese, means “uncle“. Besides the obvious family-relation, it is also used as a name of endearment–yes! that’s a “pet name” for ye– to refer to older male individuals who are not actually related by blood. For instance, my children refer to their Chinese school bus driver as Shūshu. Is this now a magic school bus? Perhaps, in a sense, in Wakfu, this is a sword, giving its adventurous user extra power. In effect, this Sir Percedal character, who wields such powerful sword, might have a relationship with this magical sword as if one has a relationship with a pet. The character is at times rather literally defined by the sword, as a sports team is unitingly defined by its mascot. Perhaps as this is as much as a master is defined by their pet and their pet by them (…it is said that the bacteria in one’s body are defined by the kind of pet one nurtures).

Is this where “mascotte” and “mascota” meet?

…maybe not, maybe the perceived link between “mascot” and “mascota” is entirely serendipitous. Or, maybe one can judge it as a negative form of cultural appropriation; but then, which culture is appropriating which (a topic that could use a posting of its own)? Maybe, in similarity with “salary” and “celery” which are sounding rather similar yet, one being healthier and the other being more or less edible (or something of the sort), such serendipity could be sufficient. In truth, I admit, the second meaning of the Spanish word “mascota” is indeed ” the animal that represents a team.” What then are the links between a pet and a mascot?

Cat-headed deity Bastet

Do I believe in mascots as being like a talisman;.. I personally do not; it’s too irrational for my taste. However, I know many out there (e.g. in sports or in brand loyalty) who do. In human (pre)history we can surely uncover this strong and deep-seated conviction (e.g. in Shamanism, in the wearing of a powerful animal’ skin or skeletal parts, etc.). Is it in Shamanism where we could unveil the cross-over between talisman, mascot and pet? One might have heard of animal spirits… Is this where the Pharaohs and their cats lived in-between the world of the “pet” and the world of the “mascota”? Is the trans-language activity allowing us to, more or less easily, shift in-between more than just a linear translation?

Egyptian mummified cats

The relationship and experiences I sense which I could have with a “mascotte” versus that of a “mascota“, versus that of a “pet“, are very different. While arguably “mascota” and “pet” are the “same”, I can guarantee you: I do not perceive them as the same; not at all (besides the rational yet reductionist knowledge they are “translatables” between English and Spanish). I could elaborate yet the feelings are still conflicting and chaotically intertwined as the yarn my cat-companions got their paws on during their not-so-quiet midnight hours.

As a third sidenote: 

I am learning Spanish. The arguments as to why I am can be covered in another posting.

However, this exploration of the in-between aids me to stoke the fire of increased willingness to continue my studies. It also aids me to look deeper and see hints of associations between words, beyond one language alone (...there are links between pets and mascots).

It allows me to slowly but surely unveil my blindness into other languages and areas: Italian: mascotte; Portuguese: mascote‎; Spanish: mascota‎; and to me excitingly surprising even
Polish: maskotka‎.

I imagine that the act of this inter-language play, functions as an object of my imaginary making. I imagine it as my personal talisman. As much as the meaning of "talisman" is that of being an object that completes another object, the linguistic inter-play completes a passion for learning via the ritual of the creative act. The in-between language play increases a sense of playful power, energy (rejuvenation of learning), and perhaps other learning benefits.

Additional reasoning as to why this works for me could be yet another posting.

Another example is the Spanish word “negocio“, which seems to mean “business“. Following, I believe I can claim that “Su negocio” means “(their/her/…) your business” as in, for instance, “their shop“. In English a seemingly similar word exists, “negotiation“. Sure, for both we can follow the thread back to the common source in Latin: negotiari (“to carry on business”), from negotium (“business”).

Nevertheless, one word, the English word “business“, feels –that is, as in the initial moment of my sensation of perceiving some meaning– as it connotes (to me, at least) a fixed point, a done deal. The other, the Spanish word “negocio”, when overshadowed with the English word “negotiation”, superficially connotes (to me) a process; not a done deal. This is all the while, contradictory, the Spanish word in isolation away from the English, could feel to me as referring to someone’s shop, someone’s business; a fixed location. I am confident, as time and thinking passes by, that my sensations might change.

Consecutively and for now, I continue to wonder whether in one or versus a combinatorial language-usage, the business owner might experience to be more confronted with the constant uninterrupted negotiations it takes to maintain a business in relation to many an intrinsic and extrinsic force, support, constraint, potential or many a stakeholder. On the other hand, this is all the while in the other language one (me) might more easily go with an assumption where, following a negotiation, one is “in business“. This feels perhaps as if arrived at a specific point of an almost unquestioned doing and being “in business”. Is one more or less delusional / irrational then the other? Does one lead to more or less entrepreneurial dare and risk taking than the other? I imagine yet, I cannot (yet) know. I do question whether anyone has done any research on differences in perceptions and consequential (in)action compared between (multi-)language groups?

I am noticing some writing, in various media outlets, and in a number of fields (e.g. in topics covering psychology, business, well-being, ethics, leadership, etc) that do mention the effect and affect of language usage on the well-being of one’s self and in-between oneself and others. The co-creation of the poetic experience with real-life consequences is exciting to me, to say the least.

In any case, I have been using this in-between language learning and expression for many years now. I also use it with friends across cultures (e.g. my Chinese friends) . This play seems to be universally sensed. At the least, pragmatically, it has helped to strengthen social bonds through playfulness.

Epilogue: My two cats are wonderful pets and this while they do scratch and destroy, as two little demons of the night. Look at their picture, heading this text! However cute, as far as them being charms or talismans, I am not yet convinced.  In retrospect, instead of having named them Luna and Molly I could have named one Charm and the other Mascota... oh well...