Learning and space mean communicationtheories rooting in china, india, and europe

81 Chapter Learning and Space Mean Communication: Theories Rooting in China, India, and Europe Gilbert Ahamer Graz University, Austria ABSTRACT This chapter places learning into a wider context and suggests three main categories as modes of thinking: the level of facts, the level of interaction and the level of perspectives In order to provide a fresh view, learning as such is founded on communication (in several possible forms, including non-spatial e-learning) Successful learning from an evolutionary, global view is seen as enabling realities to actually be changed cooperatively Didactics is seen as training directed at changing perspectives Building on a concept of space that is generated by communication, and after a survey of historic approaches to space and cognition from Asia and Europe, learning is understood to be a generic result of the manifoldness of views and perspectives A core suggestion of this text is: “to accelerate time means to facilitate learning” and vice-versa: “learning means to accelerate time” An approach of “meta-didactics” is proposed to lead to a competence that is capable of bridging all possible standpoints – especially in the fields of globalization, multicultural comprehension and education towards global peace THE GREATER CONTEXT The theme of this entire book covers higher education including distance education; especially regarding how leadership in both fields can be attained In this light, the present chapter decides on an unusual approach in order to prepare a fundamental view on the foundations of education and learning DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0672-0.ch005 Copyright © 2017, IGI Global Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited  Learning and Space Mean Communication: Learning as a decisive and universal theme of human development is here fundamentally linked to several other themes serving the targets of this text in the larger sense, namely • (1) Global evolution – when keeping in mind that human and civilisational evolution is apparently triggered, fostered and accelerated by successful (individual and collective) learning, hence (Formula 1, Ahamer, 2010) Formula 1: Learning enhances global civilisational evolution • (2) Well-being and health in a holistic sense (i.e., the potential and expectable sixth Kondratieff upswing suggested among others by Nefiodow & Nefiodow, 2011) that intends cultural equilibrium and the profound satisfaction of deep human needs in a society and the healing of energyrelated imbalances (Tolle, 1997, Pearl, 2001, Loyd & Johnson, 2010, Hicks & Hicks, 2006, Thích Nhất Hạnh, 2010, Montessori, 1909, Steiner, 1960, Freire, 1968, Smith, 1976, Eckhart, 1993) to the degree possible under the given physical, evolutionary, developmental and political circumstances (Formula 2) Life is perceived as an opportunity to attain personal freedom and mental wealth This approach is by far the most effective and strongest type of learning, but will not be dealt with in this chapter The intention is to allow for self-creation and this is exactly the approach of an educator in the stage of mastery Formula 2: Learning is healing Healing is learning • (3) Communication in the general sense of mutual exchange that opens up “spaces” of interaction and communication, which ultimately leads to autopoietic self-construction of a humanitarian community among the globe’s citizens, based on the key notion of responsibility This thought is expressed in Formula Formula 3: What can be said about “space”, can be said about “learning” as well: both are constituted by communication The advantage of contemplating a greater context as suggested by Formula 1, Formula and Formula lies in the possibility of making use of the tremendously large literature and deeper understanding provided by other streams of human thinking, namely (1) developmental and evolutionary theories of humanity, (2) psychotherapy including all traditions and options for individual or collective healing and finding a well-balanced status of living and (3) human geography, including its latest developments that have recently made it a “theory exporting” branch of science The motivation of the present article is hence to lay the foundations for an enriched concept of didactics and learning by including both Asian and European historical and contemporary traditions of thought, including very innovative thought Such a concept of learning should build on primordial deliberations and entities and start from scratch, building only on unquestionable primary categories of thinking More concretely, the aim of this chapter is to introduce a radically new theory of learning as such – based on an audacious theory of space as such This chapter suggests applying what has been said on space also to learning – thus generating a new approach Conclusions for Higher Education (HE) are 82  Learning and Space Mean Communication: provided – including distance education – and this is a good argument for taking into account definitions of space as such Actually, the three above-mentioned realms of thinking and theorizing are intertwined and entangled: As a first example, Claire Graves’ theory of “Memes” (reported and structured by Beck & Cowan, 1996, Graves, 1970, 1974 and Küstenmacher et al., 2012) describes how the entire evolution of civilization can be described by some nine consecutive main patterns of world views and value systems that can be adopted by individuals and cultures In this evolutionary meta-theory, the five belief systems of the so-called “first tier” (usually characterized by the colors beige, purple, red, blue, orange, green1) can be transcended in a “second tier” (yellow, turquoise, coral) – a potential process that can take place & time actually during the present historical epoch2 It is important to note that each of the eight value systems is present at any historic time in different individuals (according to Ernst Haeckel’s dictum for biology in 1866: ontogenesis is abbreviated phylogenesis; Transemantics, 1977) while emphasis becomes shifted throughout history – thus posing an eminent chance for both individual (and hence subsequent collective) learning among mankind When following Clair Graves’ metatheory, each act of individual learning represents an actual facilitation for collective learning, hence human evolution in the sense of humanitarian, psychic and social development Additionally, the author’s understanding of global history as “blossoming evolution” (Ahamer, 2008) suggests that learning processes are the only means to speed up techno-socio-economic evolution Whatever theory of learning readers may choose, learning always means reaching a higher state of consciousness – whatever metric may be used to measure it A second example is that learning (anamnesis – a term used by Plato – that learning consists of rediscovering the knowledge within us) was believed to be the same as re-calling pre-existent wisdom (cf Roland, 2012, Tolle, 2005) and hence re-entrance into a well-equilibrated psychic state of freedom and evolution – corresponding to an act of healing When building this conceptual bridge, a myriad of experiences and theories from psychotherapy, medicine and psychology become available for theorizing “learning” Similar theories of global development correlate well with such a view: Amartya Sen (1999) believes that “development” goes beyond classical views of economic development but includes dignity and freedom Finally, the third example is conceptualizing “space” as result of human (or general) interaction and communication (Ahamer, 2014a, b, 2016) and the subsequent understanding that space as such is constructed by human perception Continuing this thought into considering “spaces of perception” (see Table 1), which is actually the realm of didactics, allows the contemplation of several “truths” at a time and the perception of them as gradual phases in an overall evolution directed to full humanism The present chapter concentrates on the third of these three proposed links to other realms Table Evolution of understanding and science can be pictured along three main categories: elements, interaction and communication between them, and perspectives on these categories element interaction (of elements) perspective (on interaction of elements) branches of science physics, mechanics (human) geography, systems analysis didactics, sociology, peace research 83  Learning and Space Mean Communication: OPTIONS FOR CONCEPTS OF LEARNING The motivation of the present article is to lay the fundament for a generic concept of learning based on communication and a theory of space resulting from communication (as such) Such a concept of learning should build on primordial deliberations and entities and start from scratch, while disregarding any culturally-bound presuppositions Here at the outset, an approach is selected that seems to be as fundamental as possible: which most basic deliberation shows what the foundational characteristics of learning are? In which category of thinking does learning fall? In the author’s view, “learning” triggers a process of understanding that previously separated world views of individual humans converge even if these were too “distant” to interact directly and harmoniously Learning supports matching and connecting of (previously unconnected) world views and trains harmonious personal interaction Learning can be thought of as a provider of mutual understanding, hence as enabler for communication and cooperation In this concept (Formula 4), learning is proportional (sign ∝) to the likelihood of actually changing “reality” (cf Ahamer, 2017, chapter 3.4.3) The field of peace research and global development (including the most difficult of all Nobel Prizes, the Nobel Peace Prize) may be especially inclined to such a definition Consequently, such a concept might be capable of uniting the scientific fields of (social) communication and learning, and may contribute to transdisciplinary understanding Formula 4: successful learning ∝ likelihood of successfully changing “reality” cooperatively 2.1 Main Concepts of Learning and Space in History When starting out from philosophy and theoretic geography, “space” clearly and visibly depends on the underlying communication procedures, as the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1781) had already posited in the 18th century Space and learning are a function (e.g written as f) of the communicative process constituting them (generalized in Formula and Formula 6, compare Formulae to 15 in Ahamer, 2014a), as is also stated by modern geographers (Herod, 2009, Soja, 2011, Ahamer, 2012a, 2013a) and – of course – by many authors in didactics Formula 5: space = f (communication process) Formula 6: learning = f (communication process) Presently and practically, the enormous multitude of Internet users (hence, potential e-learning clients) makes the globe an ever moving, constantly re-aggregating cluster of bubbles, appearing and disappearing Symbolically, such a pattern might be envisioned as a cluster of soap bubbles of diverse radius (each representing a communicational, hence social aggregate: Figure in Ahamer, 2014b: 169), or as a boiling “primordial soup” of an upcoming communicational world, when inclining towards the noosphere concept of French philosopher and paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin (1955) and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Vernadsky (1926) “We live in a transition (from biosphere) to the noosphere” (Vernadsky, 1945); and such a transition was explicitly advocated and desired by both scientists (Mo- 84  Learning and Space Mean Communication: Figure Chien, Auo, Shih Modes of Chinese perception of space (Lai, 1985) chalov, 2011, Lapo, 2001, de Chardin, 1955) similarly to other advocates of evolutionary transitions (Raskin et al., 2002, Krausmann & Fischer-Kowalski, 2013) “The term biosphere was coined in 1875 by the famous Austrian geologist Eduard Suess (1831-1914)” (Trubetskova, 2004) The term “noosphere” (sphere of reason and thought) was first coined by the French mathematician and philosopher, Edouard Le Roy, “building on Vernadsky’s ideas and on discussions with Teilhard de Chardin” (Le Roy, 1927, Trubetskova, 2004) Again, both biosphere and noosphere are seen here as both spaces and learning effects constituted by characteristic modes of communication therein 2.2 Deliberation Towards a Communicational Space It can be deliberated and hypothesized that in our Internet age, the conceived sole importance of geodetic space is likely to implode imminently, at least for several layers of relevance within life and consciousness In such a reductionist view, when clicking the mouse to enter a social web, our clicking finger annihilates the (purely geodetic relevance of) planet Earth not by physically destroying it, but by rendering its traditional metric less relevant What becomes irrelevant will slip out of attention, hence out of consciousness; therefore, it is no longer perceived, and as such no longer exists (in our perception, cf Ahamer, 2014a, b) Space-less communication destroys the unique relevance of geodesy in the traditional sense Analogously, it can be postulated that communication deprived of learning destroys the classical meaning of “truth” 85  Learning and Space Mean Communication: 2.3 Co-Evolution of Space, Learning and Communication Since the earliest epochs of organismic evolution, a tactile type of spatial learning (based on steric, hence space-related properties of bio-macromolecules) has been perceived by flagellate proto-organisms (cf Pereira, 2015a, b) and similarly by the immune defense system; and most likely the nature of the respectively learned spaces has correlated closely with the communicational tools of the respective organisms The earlier the emergence of the perceiving organisms, the deeper their concept of learning might be rooted in collective cognitive structures, materialized as “brain”, e.g tactile, audial, visual and other types of learning, taking place in the related “spaces” Geodetic learning in this deliberation has been implemented in acts of cognition for millions of years and has also been valid for bacteria since their evolutionary emergence – which actually serves to convince most of us to insist that (geodetic) “learning is really real” Conscious experience informs perceived “reality” (Brown, 2013) 2.4 Globalization is Key to the Understanding of Space and Learning Similar deliberations may be found in geographic literature: Bryson et al (1990, p 24) saw “the myths about globalization signaling the end of geography” and advocated the “death of distance” Through borderless information flow and e-commerce, (geodetic) space and related learning and time are largely being rendered irrelevant The similar but more widely-known expression of increasing “space-time compression” (Harvey, 1989) or “time-space shrinkage” denotes the same evolutionary structural civilizational transition, in the words of a social geographer Similarly, by the term “time-space-distanciation” the British sociologist Anthony Giddens (2001) refers to time and space as being a human construct (Knox & Marston 2008, p 75) As compared to those ideas already presented in Ahamer (2014a, b), the decisive step in the present chapter is that all these deliberations are applied to learning as well: “learning-time compression” or “time-for-learning shrinkage” are newly emerging concepts that fit well into the presumed shrinkage of time over history’s evolution and intensified global cooperation in ever more complex modes In line with the (admittedly audacious) definitions for the variable “time” (which is usually seen as the independent variable in any science such as physics but is expressly seen as a dependent variable here; see later in Formula 14 leads to Formula 15) we see that actually “time” is the effect of a learning procedure Such an expressly taken view may reverse the traditional one taken in science Regarding the political and cultural phenomenon of globalization that we all face, for Anthony Giddens (2001) globalization is the consequence of modernity He describes globalization as the “restructuring of space and time”; this equals – seen through a sociologist’s lens – exactly what this article attempts to consider, namely the communicational constitution of space and learning In this sense, globalization can be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations that link distant realities in such a way that “local occurrences are shaped by events occurring far away”, and vice versa (Giddens, 1990, p 64) Globalization might well act as a catalyst to push learning further to an advanced understanding of evolution, complexity, and human nature on a higher level of consciousness What was suggested in the paragraph above can be seen as quite the same message as was described in the domain of quantum physics in the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox (Einstein et al 1935; Moser 1989; 1991; 1992; Zeilinger, 2007, p 333; CABEQ, 2004), where subatomic properties such as an electron’s spin are communicated faster than the speed of light, thus opening up the concept of nonlocality (Gröblacher et al., 2007) Einstein’s disciple Bohm (1980, p xv) finds that “in the enfolded [or 86  Learning and Space Mean Communication: implicate] order, learning and time are no longer the dominant factors determining the relationships of dependence or independence of different elements” and develops a theory that “is not based on the use of a learning-time description” (Bohm et al., 1970, p 171); similar to Sheldrake’s (2009) morphogenetic fields or Pribram’s (1991) suggestion that memories may be enfolded within every region of the brain rather than being localized in one region (holonomic brain theory, Pribram & Meade, 1999), resembling a hologram that mathematically uses Fourier transforms (Similarly, Ahamer (2014a, b) proposes functional spaces in addition to geo-spaces, which are again open to learning by social interaction.) Far-reaching interpretations of quantum mechanics have been widely popularized by the Austrian physicist Fritjof Capra (1975), including Asian philosophical approaches to uncertainty, indeterminacy, and freedom Also the distinction between cognizing subject and cognized object, and their principal independence from each other, is essentially suspended in quantum mechanics (Wichmann, 1971) Hence, theoretical physics has, in a way, conceptually prepared a century ago what this article is attempting to convey now The French theorist of space Lefebvre (1974) suggested the three following concepts of space: spatial practices, representations of space, and spaces of representation In the author’s understanding, space is the opportunity for processes of change to occur (Ahamer, 2014a: Formula 14), hence a life in space allows for learning 2.5 What Didactics is Traditionally, the science that deals with learning is didactics While students learn how to take (suitable) perspectives, didactics trains how this can best be done As a new attempt to define the approach of the scientific discipline of didactics, in the context of Table the present chapter states (Formula 7): Formula 7: Didactics trains the training of taking views and perspectives The concepts presented by didactics are hence transdisciplinary by nature From this perspective, learning – or rather, successful acts of learning– facilitate training for perception, containing therein all possible modes of perception DO EASTERN AND WESTERN CONCEPTS OF SPACE AND LEARNING CONVERGE? 3.1 Far Eastern approaches to Space and Cognition 3.1.1 Chinese Historic Approaches Towards Space It can be helpful to examine other traditions of understanding what space is In particular, the long Chinese philosophical tradition shows promise in widening a purely occidental perspective This chapter follows some attempts at intercultural modes of studying what space might result from Innovation – according to Thomas S Kuhn (1962) – often consists in applying paradigms of one scientific discipline to another discipline 87  Learning and Space Mean Communication: As one example, the Chinese architect Chih-Ta Lai (1985) in his study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology applies philosophical spatial concepts to architecture and understands them as being capable of evolving throughout history, as in the case of China over 30 centuries Lai (1985, p 2, Ahamer, 2014b: 173ff) sees the characteristics of spatial concepts as determined by the relationship between man and phenomena; this relationship may take three forms that follow each other in historic development (Figure 1): Chien, Auo, and Shih Only imperfect translations can be found for those concepts of spatial paradigms which were prevalent during different times: Chien means the in-between (relevant in architecture before the Han dynasty, 206 BC to 220 AD), Auo means profundity (from the Han dynasty through the Tang, 618-907 AD, and Song dynasties, 960-1279 AD; and similar to Japanese oku), and Shih means tendency and atmosphere, developing tendency, changing situation (since the Song dynasty, prevailing through the Ming, 13681644 AD, and Qing dynasties, 1644-1911 AD) (Lai, 1985, p 23-33; 102) “Shih hints at a sense of flowing, growing and interacting It describes any phenomenon with force, energy and everything is perceived as ‘alive’ and dynamic It seems that Shih concerns the changing rhythms rather than the static characteristics of the universe It reflects a holistic view of the universe.” (Lai, 1985, p 35; 71) For Laotse (cf Lai, 1985, p 21), the utility of space lies in its hollowness, perceptiveness and emptiness; the void (the immaterial) is important for its ability to be filled by the solid (the material) Clearly, this “Eastern” understanding of space is very close to “Western” quantum mechanics where space is probability space or state space; a vessel to be filled by occurring elementary particles (Wichmann, 1971), yet similar to “container space” perceived in early traditions of geography (Hund, 1972; Čapek, 1976, p 113) For Laotse, the non-space (windows, doors etc.) offers opportunities for decisions to be made (Chang, 1981) Additionally, the Tibetian author Tarthang Tulku (1986, p 30) explicitly invites the study of infinite space as such (not only an infinite number of objects in space) which he holds to be a more promising route to relaxation and personal satisfaction Ultimately, he concludes in his book: “Space projects space into space” (Tulku, 1986, p 33) In the author’s understanding, space (in the context of this subsection) is the fixed, already decidedfor; while non-space is the yet open, still-permitted option to act (could also be described as potential) – hence learning This is similar to quantum mechanics, where the probability function of an unmeasured entity is still undecided (Schrödinger, 1935) Compare also the well-known paradox of Schrödinger’s cat, as was fundamentally revealed by quantum mechanics in the 1920s (Heisenberg, 1969) As mentioned, this chapter tries to generalize the notion of ‘space’ As mentioned by the Australian futurologist Joseph Voros (2001, 2003, 2005, 2006a, b, 2008): the distinctions between Chien and Auo seem to resonate with the idea of ‘extended’ and ‘unextended’ space, or Ken Wilber’s right-hand quadrants (extension) and left-hand quadrants (interiority) (Wilber, 1997) The ‘space’ of interiority is similarly characterizable by way of the ‘depth’ of interpretation possible in that interiority In Wilber’s view, the complexity of connections in physical space (brain wiring or ‘connectome’) apparently gives rise to a ‘deeper’ interior ‘space’ 88  Learning and Space Mean Communication: Figure The letter of Chien Source: Nitschke, 1966) 3.1.2 Similar spatial understanding in Japan As an example of similar understanding in related cultures, Chien is analogous to the Japanese ma (the thing that takes place in the imagination of the human who experiences compositional elements: Nitschke, 1966, 1988) and is written with the same character (Figure above) This character’s center is the pictorial sign for the moon, under the sign for gate; the combination depicts the delicate moment of moonlight streaming through a chink in the entrance way, expressing two simultaneous components of a sense of place: the given and the felt aspect (Nitschke, 1993, p 51, see in Figure and in Figure 2) The conceptual importance of emptiness and void is underlined by this citation: “Length of time depends upon your ideas Size of space hangs upon your sentiments For one whose mind is free from care a day will outlast the millennium For one whose heart is large, a tiny room is as the space between heaven and earth.” (cited after Nitschke, 1967, p 1006; 1966, p 113, translated from Saikotan [Vegetable Root Talks], Yuhodo, Tokyo, 1926) The traditional Japanese consciousness of space distinguishes three steps: first kukan (space), second ma (place), third dai-kyu (great emptiness) (Nitschke, 1967) Modern literature provides encouragement for the notion that modes of perception can be transferred and yet remain valid in other civilizations and cultures: According to Küstenmacher et al (2012, p 245sq), the Wilber-Combs lattice (Wilber, 2006, p 89) illustrates that each mode of vision and understanding can be achieved in each civilization, culture or psychological phase of development – thus, in a sense, contradicting (neo-)classical economic development theory (e.g Rostow, 1960) 3.1.3 An Evolutionary Sequence of Three Chinese Spatial Concepts For Lai (1985, p 70) spatial concepts not only coexist but develop one after another, based on a cyclic procedure of perception, conception and application of space (Figure 3) Similarly, and also illustrated during the evolution of geography throughout history (Ahamer, 2012a; 2013a), the concept of space has 89  Learning and Space Mean Communication: Figure The procedure of space perception and space-making after Lai (1985, p 70) integrated into the larger concept of contemplation and acting evolved into it being perceived as a constructed entity The same applies to learning: it can be seen as a construction of “understanding” (compare with Formula 7) According to his general system (Figure 3), Lai (1985) next looks into the perception of the three spatial concepts For the architect Lai, the modes of space perception are not only distinct phases in philosophical thought, but are reflected in distinct architectural approaches towards buildings, architectural style and spatial planning Chien (explained in the first row of Table 2) results from the inevitable fact that “space has to be perceived” (Lai, 1985, p 58) Even if looking back is impossible for this divergent body perception, Chien is not replaced but coexists while being complemented by other modes of perception In Auo (second row in Table 2), man escapes from the enclosure of external phenomena and tries to observe internal phenomena from the outside, by spirit perception “Man can manipulate his own mind into a spiritual status to get rid of the constraints of the physical body (…) and then the whole appearance of the universe gets graspable (…) and one can get into a formless world that is Table Modes of Chinese space perception in three stages according to Lai (1985) Perceptual … Mode subject object medium move translation situation Chien man external phenomena body inside-out inside, in-between man at center, diverging Auo man internal phenomena spirit outside-in sense of profundity man converges to a formless center Shih man external and internal phenomena breath reciprocal flow in-out tendency man and phenomena integrated 90  Learning and Space Mean Communication: SPACE AND LEARNING ARE A PREREQUISITE FOR GLOBAL CONVERGENCE 5.1 Energetists and Atomists 5.1.1 A Historic Struggle In the course of the history of science, genuine innovations have typically harmonized two (previously irreconcilable) fundamental concepts in physics One of the historic examples in physics is the struggle between two fundamentally different approaches and their representatives, namely energetists and materialists who start out with the basic assumption of either “energy as a property of space” (represented by the Austrian physicist ErnstMach 1912) or of a “very high multitude of particles moving in space according to statistical laws” (represented by the Austrian physicist LudwigBoltzmann 1898) Boltzmann succeeded in reconciling the macro view with the micro view in thermodynamics Both of these rather conscientious individuals worked among others in Graz, Austria and were in scientific and personal conflict with one another, based on their differing concepts marked by the struggle of “energetist versus atomist” (Ahamer, 1985, 2014a, 2016) This personal conflict could even be considered tragic in a sense, representing a vivid example of how irreconcilable and unforgivable fractionizing into sub-disciplines during the historic progress of science can strongly affect even individual biographies It may appear as a paradox of Boltzmann’s individual biography that he presently gets lauded more (Mitter 2007, p 117) than his counterpart in his conflicting dialogue with Mach, although he might have experienced more difficulties in his personal life Mach’s standpoint in selecting energy as the fundamental entity (at the expense of material particles and their mechanic interactions, which were dismissed by Mach as a fundamental entity, see Mitter 2007, p 126) found almost no resonance in the further evolutionary flow of scientific understanding (which can be seen as a cultural mode of the expression of a civilization) Only half a century later did it become possible for another thinker adhering to the same tradition (Heisenberg, 1969) to conceive that “the contradiction to a deep truth may be a deep truth as well”, hence bringing conceptual integration to the forefront of the civilizational mode of expression named “natural sciences” 5.1.2 Reaching out to Others Basically, and inspired by the abovementioned century-old conceptual achievement, the metric for a space shall be defined in this subchapter as the effort to reach another individual (the same can be said about “reaching another perspective & world view”), i.e., the threshold for bridging the “spatial” difference between communicating individuals; a process which might require so-called “energy” in whatever shape or appearance (τὸ ἔργον in Greek means work, act, deed; ἐν means in(side): hence, containing accomplished work; “the work is inside”) Consequently, in this concept “space” is the result of communicative social action (Agnew et al., 1996 etc.) or at least the result of an effort to communicate Hence, the present definition of space holds “interaction, communication” to be a more fundamental entity than “geodetic space”, which is not in conflict with several concepts presented during the history of geography (Ahamer, 2012a) Any (human) individual (also able to be conceptualized as singularities in a hypothesizable field of the universe’s consciousness) are perceived (hence defined) by the way they communicate (their world 97  Learning and Space Mean Communication: view) to partners Again, this is not in conflict with some concepts in human geography Furthermore, without space, the universe’s consciousness would not be (and could not be) fractionized into individuals who are (then) able to take their subjective viewpoints on “reality” (Ahamer, 2013d, p 105) Meanings and (virtual) values are continuously generated by the communicative action of entities As a working hypothesis, and for the target of the present pages, “consciousness” may be understood as a property generated by reflectivity or reflection mediated by communication – all these ingredients are easily able to be hypothesized and are not unusual in a systems analysis view on reality As a tendency, such a tentative definition might comply with what other authors suggest (Tolle, 1997, Ardagh, 2007) 5.1.3 Nearness in Space Mathematically and structurally, it is essential for the definition of a space to conceive and define a metric Let us start with the inverse of distance, namely “nearness” or proximity and write Formula 11: Formula 11: nearness in space to ∝ W (communication options with x) 5.2 A Formal Definition for Time, Space and Learning Stepping back again from the picture and viewing all approaches allows a clear conclusion: The above derivation of “what is space” means that Formula 12:space is the opportunity for change processes to occur hence the opportunity for change to take place In this context, successful learning is the actual taking of this opportunity Inversely, time can be viewed and defined as the substrate for enacting change processes One of many special but practical cases is learning (Ahamer et al 2010, p 302) which is identical to altering conscious entities, e.g human individuals Consciousness is defined here as reflectiveness, namely the ability to look at oneself When reforming the equation saying “enacted communication changes an object x in time t”, or written formally as “(enacted communication with x) ∝ Δx / Δt” in a way as is commonly done with equations, we may have achieved a “definition” for a time span Δt: Formula 13: Δt ∝ Δx / (communication with x) In this chapter, “change in consciousness” is actually called “learning” A unit time step (Δt) can be seen as proportional to the entity’s learning change per communication or “learning effect per enacted communication”, which can further be interpreted as the “learning efficiency of the communicating entity” (more details in Ahamer, 2014a, 2016) In other words, a unit time step is equal to a unit entity change caused by a unit of enacted communication, i.e., the more efficiently persons learn (change their consciousness), the faster time passes Such would allow the speeding up of time It is evident that such a view could fundamentally change our understanding of what time is 98  Learning and Space Mean Communication: The above deliberation informs that distance becomes inversely proportional to accomplished learning and leads to Formula 14: Formula 14: unit time step Δ(t) = |t| ∝ learning efficiency Learning efficiency is understood as efficiency in actually changing a consciousness In words, Formula 14 means: to learn more efficiently accelerates time Read the other way round, the proportionality of Formula 14 leads to Formula 15 (compatible with Schucman, 1976): Formula 15: to accelerate time means to facilitate learning The author notes that we are again back at (a) didactics and pedagogy (i.e., individual learning) and (b) the main strategy against globalization, cultural clashes, the greenhouse effect and global warming; namely collective learning on a world-wide scale and level In order to sum up, the main formulations for a joint definition of time and space are as follows: Formula 16:space = opportunity for processes Formula 17:time = substrate to enact processes Space calls for, even enforces, decisions to be made Without options to decide there is no space, because a decision such as “right versus left” (as a symbol for a decision concerning which path to walk on) is then meaningless The intention of the present subchapter is to radically invent a new, unconventional theory of learning based on the essential importance of space and acts of communication that are enacted by communicators For the constitution of such freshly defined space, the next logical step in this article is to conceive more closely what communication might look like, because existing communication options are presumed to affect what space is Because a communication-based derivation of the character of learning and space needs no further preconceptions or preliminary definitions, this approach can be expected to be more fundamental than other definitions of space and learning This approach here tries to cognize the fundamental structures 5.3 Implications of Such a Definition of Space and Learning The implications of such a perception or definition of space as being constituted by communication are as follows: If there is no communication, there is no space Space is always a space for action There is no space without interaction taking place in it Time is always a time for learning In case communication should be found to increase along human history and the evolution of civilization (for the usefulness of such a hypothesis see Ahamer, 2013a), space and its qualities are likely to react as well, namely by intensification 99  Learning and Space Mean Communication: If there is more than one mode of communication there will be more types of space and learning The importance of (such multiple) spaces may vary as a function of the importance of underlying communication simultaneously A space without action (in it) is impossible, rather it is inconceivable, and hence is never generated by any consciousness A possible further step in deliberating the foundations of learning is to concentrate on how the focus on the three columns in Table is likely to shift during long-term global evolution: Figure Over the history of sciences (represented by the three rows of Figure 5), it has become evident that • • • First natural sciences dealt with (more or less simple) facts as cognized by humans Then social sciences, with the interaction of individual humans Lately, interperspectivistic and interparadigmatic science has been dealing with different (cultural) perspectives, e.g on globalization and global development Hence, such an interacting system of conscious elements is self-defining, self-generating, i.e., autopoietic (the systems analytic vocabulary for “producing itself”) and no longer prone only to the maximization of entropy according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which is valid (only) for non-self-organizing systems It is important to see that there is a co-evolution (i.e., a mutual shaping during their genesis; compare Norgaard, 1995, 2005) of space, individual actors in it (humans forming a society) and the perspectives taken by them (set of views forming values) This article’s definition of space (as being generated by communication) can be applied to paleolithic humans, to the era of discoveries, and to modern intercultural problems, globalization and suchlike Clusters of individuals can best be defined by a common subset of perspectives (e.g., Ahamer et al., 2010, Ahamer, 2013d), i.e., highly correlated views yielding values and producing meaning The author thinks that in the long term, cosmic evolution drifts towards ever increasing meaning (continued creation in a philosophical or theological sense), i.e., the creation of meaning (in line with the results of the Global Change Data Base GCDB, see Ahamer 2008, 2013c, 2014a) In the same vein, recent biomedical literature (Bauer, 2007, Hüther, 2013) verifies that human behavior is targeted to successful cooperation and delivers an experimental corroboration by detecting substances producing the perception of happiness after humans have enacted cooperation As an example, Pentecostal empirics start with being in the same place (i.e., being co-located) Comparisons can be drawn Figure Survey of the levels of facts, interactions, and perspectives and the evolutionary shift of emphasis 100  Learning and Space Mean Communication: with Far-Eastern, Chinese, Buddhist and Islamic thinkers, or with contemplative individuals (such as the Sufi who were burned by their contemporaries); also regarding their understanding of space and time, as can be found in Ahamer (2014b) If space is given to unattended action, it will take place In the above deliberation and definition, time and space are complementary; they need each other in order to exist Communication mediates and endows Consequently, the type of communication defines the type of metric of space and time Over the past century and mainly stemming from physics, space has often been replaced by the notion of fields Examples of very unconventional definitions are: fields in general as suggested by analyses of Japanese grammar (Latka, 2003, 2007), non-classic fields such as the field suggested by the EinsteinPodolsky-Rosen paradox (Moser, 1989) documenting instantaneous effects and Rupert Sheldrake’s (1988) morphogenetic fields Spaces in earlier times of ontogenesis have been so strongly “hardwired” that these count as “really real” Examples are tactile spaces for protozoa; walking spaces, seeing spaces, hearing spaces for higher animals, spaces of physical battles for earlier civilizations, cultural and religious spaces for all civilizations, long distance weapons spaces for recent civilizations, ICT spaces for the most recent decades, and possibly spaces for instantaneous communication (cf EPR paradox etc.) in the future The question is whether there is still an inconsistency in thinking, because to many of us, geo-spaces seem to exist without perception At any rate, and independent of the concrete naming of the described effect by different authors, we may speak of a “spatial transition” that adds to the list of other evolutionary civilizational transitions listed in Ahamer (2008) This is a crucial point in the present chapter and this contemplation might be complemented by a “temporal transition” still to be described in more detail in a further, already planned second volume following the first volume (Ahamer, 2014a) 5.4 Practical Mechanisms for Application Space is seen here as the separation of possibilities for communication Consequently, deleting such “spatial” separation (i.e., juxtaposition in such space) enables communication Quite practically, destruction of such space may occur among other things (1) in everyday life through information and communication technologies (ICT) such as the internet; as examples, see the Arab Spring movements, or by e-learning strategies In fact, this is an implementation of de Chardin’s (1955) concept of noosphere (ὁ νοῦς or ὁ νόος: the mind in Greek, similarly invented by the Russian thinker Vernadsky), and (2) in quantum mechanics through instantaneous information transfer across large distances as described by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (1935) and often reconsidered as the EPR paradox (Moser, 1989) In this sense, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) facilitate the exchange of views (to the extent that these are space-related and geo-referenced, hence localizable) which is a necessary pre-condition for dialogue (Ahamer, 2014c) which in turn promotes scientific evolution, or is at least hoped to promote cultural evolution at the same time In the sense of this text, GIS (and virtual globes) act as providers of world views (Ahamer, 2014b), they facilitate and enhance discussion on individual world views (and thus might even contribute to “speeding up” evolution, at least technically), but also conceptually - from an optimistic point of view - by deepening understanding of opposing views From the perspective of GIS proponents, geo-referencing may represent a common denominator between and among individuals 101  Learning and Space Mean Communication: who want to exchange world views, e.g., for planning, which distinctly means Public Participation by GIS (PPGIS, Jekel et al 2010, Ahamer & Purker, 2011) 5.5 Long-Term Future Evolution of Space The above definition of space as the separation of possibilities for communication allows for a highly speculative deliberation in this subchapter: To the extent that communication between humans is increasingly enabled, and as a tendency becomes pervasive, the notion of “space” becomes void According to Renard (2003), the “dissolution of space” takes its “place”, i.e., occurs The ultimate and universal conclusion might be: In our era of internet, e-learning and social networks we see the principal annihilation of physical, geodetic space (in its main function as a barrier to communication) or also “space” viewed and conceived as accessibility, resulting in the emphasis on spatial diffusion (Knox & Agnew, 1997, p 66) As one practically conceivable socio-political consequence, the importance of area-oriented nation states (i.e., clusters in the geo-space) might vanish within some decades or the far future and will be replaced by clusters in the cultural, communicational and ethical spaces; i.e., those people who interact based on a similar philosophy of life, a similar set of values, shared constituting myths and technological facilities Consequently, the classic notion of “property” and “wealth” could vanish (by itself, autopoietically, not by external “revolution”) and be shifted into communicational “potence”– the one who shares most, best, and most suitably will be considered the richest, in a continuation of the present-day Google and Facebook economy, striving for a nonmaterial, information-related aim Present success stories of values created by openly accessible information stocks on the Web attest to the fact that this future has already begun It is no longer secluding fences but “sharing” that is the symbol of the type of wealth becoming most prevalent: the one who shares most is richest (in esteem) Communicational wealth in the space of flows (Castells, 1996) and “optimal flow” (Czikszentmihalyi, 1994) as a psychological experience might become more important CONCLUSION This chapter started out by placing learning in a larger context of: Global evolution, Well-being and health and A novel approach to space as being constituted by communication The present chapter lays the foundations for an enriched concept of didactics and learning based on an analogous concept of space This is done by including both Asian and European historical and contemporary traditions of thought Human geography especially believes that any space is endowed by acts of communication This text further digs deeply into Chinese concepts (applicable to architectural spaces) such as Chien, Auo, and Shih Other Asian and historical concepts suggest the inclusion of several levels of cognition that promise to provide additional concepts of space A tentatively formalized new concept of space starts from scratch by defining unit actions in space This section concludes by positing that space is a secondary entity (not a primary entity) and is a func102  Learning and Space Mean Communication: tion of manifoldness The hypothesis is different to what might have been thought until now, namely that manifoldness is a function of space The overall intention of the present chapter is to radically invent a new, unconventional theory of learning based on the essential importance of acts of communication that are enacted by communicators This chapter proposed to apply the conceptual and formal toolbox of statistical thermodynamics to a new type of “statistical dynamics of communicational relations” Doing so allows for a new definition of distance involving the logarithm of the probability of communicational options that can later be enlarged into enacted changes resulting from communication This chapter sees • • Space as an opportunity for processes, and Time as a substrate to enact processes Such deliberation might add to philosophy of nature (“Naturphilosophie”) Furthermore, this text defines three main options for how entities interact in space (mutual extinction, excitement, or reproduction) and draws practical conclusions Summing up this chapter, based on above historical and mathematical deliberations, it can be said that: “Space” may well be defined as a function of communication options, where “distance” is a measure based on (communicational) occurrences in a functional space In this sense, space is an opportunity for processes “Time” may be defined as a function of change processes (e.g., learning processes); 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purple is nurtured through observing rituals, finding reassurance, and by expressing a sense of enchantment in life’s mysteries; red is excited by stories of company heroes, by celebrating feats of conquest, and by evidence of respect; blue is reinforced through appeals to traditions, fair treatment for all, and by honoring length of service and loyalty; orange is exercised by displaying symbols of success, individuals being recognized for their achievements, and challenge for improvement; green is enhanced by stressing the importance of the people, responsiveness to feelings, and a caring, socially responsible community.” (Beck & Cowan, 1996: 11) Original citation from Claire W Graves: “At each stage of human existence the adult man is off on his quest of his holy grail, the way of life he seeks by which to live At his first level he is on a quest for automatic physiological satisfaction At the second level he seeks a safe mode of living, and this is followed, in turn, by a search for heroic status, for power and glory, by a search for ultimate peace, a search for material pleasure, a search for affectionate relations, a search for respect of self, and a search for peace in an incomprehensible world And, when he finds he will not find that peace, he will be off on his ninth level quest As he sets off on each quest, he believes he will find the answer to his existence Yet, much to his surprise and much to his dismay, he finds at every stage that the solution to existence is not the solution he has come to find Every stage he reaches leaves him disconcerted and perplexed It is simply that as he solves one set of human problems he finds a new set in their place The quest he finds is never ending.” (Beck & Cowan, 1996: 16) Paying attention to breathing one will find more features, such as “dynamic-static”, “rigid-tensile”, “gathered-dispersed”, “acting-reacting”, “separated-united”, “floating-sinking”, “along-against”, “lasting-ephemeral”, “void-solid”, “strong-weak”, “quick-slow”, “dim-bright”, “forward-backward” etc (cited from Lai, 1985, p 55) 111 ... Einstein’s disciple Bohm (1980, p xv) finds that in the enfolded [or 86  Learning and Space Mean Communication: implicate] order, learning and time are no longer the dominant factors determining... characteristics of learning are? In which category of thinking does learning fall? In the author’s view, learning triggers a process of understanding that previously separated world views of individual... Fifth jhāna: infinite space, Sixth jhāna: infinite consciousness, Seventh jhāna: infinite nothingness, Eighth jhāna: neither perception nor non-perception 91  Learning and Space Mean Communication: