C-173. (Step) string strength

When we look to the materiality of the steps we make and take, step strength is a concern … and the string strength within steps very much a consideration. Weakness anywhere in the string is serious (e.g., weak link in a chain). Consider, for example, the interdependency of learning and knowing (L<=>K) which should be the core of formal education. However, formal education emphasizes instruction (i.e., coping with the problem [0:Sp; C-165] occasioned by having to “teach” generation after generation the ways we have solved this and/or that problem [e.g., of communicating with each other using Read and Write linguistic and instructional protocols] and thereby risking an imbalance [C-148: L/K>1…n] … an imbalance that may not only shortchange needed functionality in the K sector [it does! See C-93], it will seriously weaken, in proportion to that imbalance, the materiality of the LK string [C-71]).* In this, and everywhere else in life’s interdependencies, we weaken ourselves – a weakness apparent in our limited problem solving capability (0: Quality of life).

Consider then the multitude of step making and taking capabilities in need of development (V), for which we need balance assessments (App. XVII) … then improved functionality, for the good of interdependency not just of that new strength. Not only are we possessed of many weak strings; we are poorly prepared to do much about it. And we are stymied.

“Moderation in everything,” it is said, as if a balanced step could thereby be essayed. Suggestive of our step imbalances as this is, there is no Grasp here that will furnish a measure of imbalance or that will enable us to improve the Involve by which we can compose stronger, more effective step strings and step braids (C-171).

We have done it to ourselves. The body (B)-transform and protocols do not let us see all that is consequential in the Expansion, most especially all the step and body <=> step materiality in CEM-history’s past and future. Behavior re a B property (C-114: behavioral entity) and re a B-B connection (e.g., communicative behavior) misses too much … of S, of S-S and of S<=>B. B-protocols can give us, in and by allowing us to objectify any step condition as the focus of our attention, a Grasp of sorts, but they fall far short of the Grasp we need … that Grasp (i.e., R-sense) which the R-transform (C-111) applied to the Expansion affords.

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String strength via “<=>” development depends on more than just the balance between conditions. If, for example, the conditions of learning and knowing are not established independently, then the balance consideration is not available. And in the case of education this is a very evident weakness. (“Learn by doing” doesn’t help the confounding’s confusion.)

This is a concept’s other definitional problem (O:Ps). In addition to establishing operational definitions for each of several concepts in order to research their relationship (the “grounding” problem) , as in correlational analyses using the behavioral entity model’s inside-outside, object attribute methods (C-114), there is the matter of conceptual boundaries. How are we to make the most of conceptual terms as a linguistic protocol – as a more useful word usage (C-171) – if we cannot establish their independence?

*The importance of something like the DPA (App. XVII) line of technological development can hardly be overemphasized. As we go about composing the steps we will then take, bringing many capacities and capabilities into play, our need for, and difficulty now of, continued surveillance for imbalances is a key to the strength we can give our steps via composed interdependence. Consider devices we have now, as for monitoring the body’s pulse or blood pressure. Consider then the “big data” challenge we face to help optimize our building of step strength via composed interdependencies that depend on requisite balance (VI). Yet this is the path to greater step strength that we need to take. We cannot afford to depend on gross behavioral measures (e.g., successes of steps taken) to evaluate performance and/or to suggest lines of and principles for improvement. Valuation protocols need to be keyed to the R-transform (this itself a “<=>” meta-matter) to make the most of step materiality … and of the step body (C-38) materiality.

(c) 2016 R. F. Carter
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