KnowledgeOfTheWorld - PlatonicConceptExtended

Are single people more self-obsessed than those in relationships?

It stands to reason, I suppose!
If there is no-one to focus one's attention on, then that attention will more likely revolve around what is there, ie oneself. Putting it another way - one's attention (or focus or view of the world) can be viewed as a sphere, emanating from oneself in the middle, like a sphere of light, from a single source - a little like the Platonic concept (the cave, and the light).

The light is strongest closest to the source, and that is where the person can see most clearly - but note, the person can only see outwardly - since the person is looking forwardly and the light views forwardly.
Anyway, one can see most clearly closer to oneself and the further out one peers, the dimmer the light and the harder it is to discern things.

This metaphor works well if the light source is like a fire, or candle, or equivalent - it is what Plato conceptualised.

(See Plato's Republic Book VII for the text of what Plato wrote).

But the metaphor can also be extended, to incorporate modern technology. Suppose that the light source is a torch. A focussed beam of light which shoots a long way into the distance butis narrow, so only a few things can be seen in a narrow field of view.
This equates to the increasing specialisation of knowledge - that has been developing since man first spoke and wrote. This is very much apparent in recent times (the last couple of hundred years) where many people know a lot about a very small area (their torch illuminates a small patch on the distant cave wall - but shows nothing else of the cave).

And the metaphor can be extended even further. Newer technologies, (here, in the metaphor, equating to new ways of providing light correspond to new ways of thinking, new modes of knowledge, new domains of knowing, new concepts of understanding).

Some of the metaphors include floodlights - a large light scene, illuminating a wide area - we have the resources now to know a lot about many subjects - in a short period of time - technology, particularly computing and communications technologies, allows one to find out a lot very quickly, and (sometimes) to a surprising depth. But, just as with a floodlight, there are still shadows, and the light still only goes so far.

Interestingly, with knowledge, the more that the "cave" is lit up, the larger the cave seems to get, and the more nooks and crannies and previously undiscovered passages and holes - and whole other caves.
And the cave (caves) itself even seems to change shape as more and different lights are added to those already there. The best analogy is that of a construction company slowly building a scaffolding of multiple lights of all kinds and types to illuminate every part of the "cave". Slowly, (lots of) knowledge is made known to many more people. Indeed, the size of the case thus illuminated becomes so large that a single person can not explore the whole lit area in just one life. In many cases, people simply stay in one place - far too much effort to try anything else. Sometimes, people decide to add extra specialised lights to the general illumination so thay can look at a piece of the cave in more detail.

This raises an interesting point. Can (or should) one work at developing new technology to either (1) more quickly build the illumination platform/structure in more parts of the case system, and/or (2) more quickly travel through the cave, viewing/photographing (storing for later retrieval) the parts/walls of the cave travelled through.

This is a knowledge engineering exercise. Actually, more precisely, it is an exercise in engineering a facility which processes knowledge in another manner. (Whether that manner is better - faster and more efficient, more effective and more efficacious - is a matter for consideration by those using the method and those observing such use. It is a contingency decision).

Thus, there have been techniques developed to assist in travelling through the cave more quickly (speed reading, for isntance, accelerated learning is another example. Other examples could include hypnotic suggestion and there are those that would propose a variety of parmaceuticals (drugs and other substances) which enhance or assist knowledge acquisition (learning) or knowledge use/retrieval).

Further analogies/metaphors could be conceptualised in relation to this knowledge "geometry". One could conceive of a whole series of fibre optic cables criss-crossing the cave, connecting one point to another (actually, a better analogy would be tiny targetted lasers which shone from one point to another). This could be the Semantic Web - interconnected knowledge.

Another metaphor would be that of somebody walking through the cave, but with lights strapped to all parts of their body. As they turned, the lights on their head and shoulders would illuminate what they were facing but there would also be lights on the shoes, in all directions, illuminating where one was standing and where one wanted to walk. There would be stronger lights on the waist, forward, sideways and in the rear, which would cast a bright glow all around the person, in all directions, so that the person could not only readily see the general vicinity, but also, other people could also readily see that person (and the same applies of this person to other persons).

What does this metaphor mean in practice, to knowledge and knowing. It could be interpreted in many ways, since the precise mechanism of knowing relating to this metaphor does not really exist yet, at this time.

One interpretation would be as follows. The person represents the act of knowledge gathering and even knowledge creation. The person is the understanding of (how to) learning, and getting to know. This is a process (a living moving entity) but it is also a thing, it is also knowledge itself (it may not be well defined knowledge, it may be ephemeral or volatile knowledge, but it is still knowledge). The act of the person moving through the cave is the act of learning new knowledge.

The movement is guided by the lights onthe feet as well as on the waist. These are "focusers" of knowledge. These are pieces of knowledge, of a certain type, which assist in guiding the further investigation into knowing (knowledge about how to know (or learn) about something else. The something else is what is being illuminated by the lights on the head and shoulders, which one volitionally points at (ie the knowledge that one wants to know about or learn)). The other knowledge which is illuminated from the feet (mostly) is unconscious - or more properly, non-volitional - knowledge. It is "provided" as a matter of course, to help guide the learning process. It is illuminating a topography which has been created by someone else (and may have even been created by oneself earlier) to help guide one's investigative perambulations. In today's current terms, this "topography" could be conceptualised as ontologies (or taxonomies or topic maps) but not necessarily one single ontology or static ontologies, but as multiple ontologies which are linked together, and as ontologies which may be personalised, on an individual basis, based on a core ontology but modified for one's own use. These ontologies guide one through areas of knowledge, indicating what needs to be known, where it is and how to move from one piece or area of knowledge to another.

These "special" ontologies can be called "methontologies" (singular: methontology) - a combination of the words "method" and "ontology", with reference to "methodology" as well. The methontologies are methods of structuring knowledge to acquire knowledge.

The "as important" element of this metaphor is the creation of a "knowledge base" for the individual as they move around, acquiring knowledge. The process used to acquire that knowledge is recorded and stored (as a knowledge structure, ie ontology and instances, itself) and the knowledge thus acquired (or attempted to be acquired) is linked (stored), possibly together with an evaluation of the strength of the acquisition (how well the knowledge was understood) (corresponding to the strength of the luminosity, maybe, in the metaphor).

This is the knowledge of the "body" (of the person) as it moves, and is the illumination which radiates fromthe lights at the waist of the person. This is most likely knowledge that the person themselves will use but it is also helpful knowledge for others - it allows them to "model" what others have done / gained / understood in order to get to a certain point (to understand something or to behave in a certain manner) and thus possibly, learn more quickly.

This is one of the essences of [[NLP]] - and this process just described above is one means of "encoding" [[NLP]].

The other potential extension of this already rather too extended metaphor is relating the luminous light in a sphere surrounding the person from the lights around the waist to the sphere of light which is a person when a sorceror can "see" other people properly in the series of Don Juan books by Carlos Castenada.

A person is really a ball of light, a complex conglomeration of light fibres which constitute and surround the person (at the same time), and extend out (or reach out) from the person. Some of the light "fibres" can reach out for great distances, and these are the means for sorcerors to travel great distances in no time, or even to "time travel". They are also the means whereby sorcerors can change shape, into other
animals, or into other people, or even into various non-human non-natural "mythical" spirits/shapes/creatures. Every living being consists of these fibres of light - just in different configurations. Some beings are much "brighter" and "stronger" than others, because they have developed their consciousness more (their ability to "see", in Castenada terms), and some people have learnt (been taught) the ability to manipulate the fibres or strands of light, in order to perform extraordinary deeds.

The metaphor from the Castenada series deals with knowledge, but mostly from the perspective of what one can know in order to gain or have power. The knowledge to manipulate the light fibres gives one power - which allows one to do things or control things - the ultimate of which is to disappear completely - not die (ever), not live (ever).

How does all this relate to knowledge acquisition and processing? To Semantic Webs and such forth? No idea!

How does it all relate to single people being more self obsessed than "coupled" people?
It may be that the metaphor just does not apply.
Two people standing together, close together, will project more light than just one person. They theoretically could see more and understand more. But, is this the case? And, even if it was, does it help? Does it mean anything?

It might be that the single person must "marshall" their energy more, in order to maintain their focus and seeing, and that this increases the "self-obsession". Plausible and possible but not meaningful in the metaphor.

Finally, it may be that two people coupled together must be aware of each other, so as not to cause troubles with the other's "apparatus" (so to speak, if you know what I mean!). Thus, they are more aware of the "other" - initially just the "significant other", and, then, as an extension and a by-product, all others (and thus, by definition, less self-bsessed). Once again, plausible and possible - and this time, more meaningful in relation to the metaphor - but not necessarily actually the root cause or determinate of such behaviour (since it is probably caused by a variety of other means/situations). Being "forced" to understand (to know) someone else also focuses one's efforts at knowing, and one's knowing or knowledge itself, in an outward manner.