In Praise of `Cultural Science' (Hartley & Potts 2014)
In Praise of `Cultural Science' (Hartley & Potts 2014)
Some praise, by:
Velikovsky of Newcastle
14th Jan 02021
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Cultural Science (Hartley & Potts 2014)So, here is a true fact. Exactly one week ago, (Thurs 7th, January 02021) I first learnt - or discovered - or heard - that there was a thing in the world (a: knowledge domain? an: academic discipline?) called:
`Cultural Science'...!
(...Did you know about it-? If so, why didn't you tell me: sooner? :)
(You'll see exactly why I ask that, below...)
So, in the past, I've published these book chapters:
Velikovsky, J. T. (02020). Technology: Memes (Units of Culture). In M. A. Runco & S. R. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Creativity (3rd ed., pp. 585-604). San Diego, Calif.: Elsevier Science & Technology Books.
Velikovsky, J. T. (2019). The Holon/Parton Structure of the Meme, or The Unit of Culture. In D. B. A. Mehdi Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Simulation, and Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 795-811). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Velikovsky, J. T. (2018). The Holon/Parton Theory of the Unit of Culture (or the Meme, and Narreme): In Science, Media, Entertainment, and the Arts. In IRMA (Ed.), Technology Adoption and Social Issues: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications(pp. 1590-1627). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Velikovsky, J. T. (2017). Chapter 405: The Holon/Parton Structure of the Meme, or, The Unit Of Culture. In M. Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition (pp. 4666-4678). New York: IGI Global.
Velikovsky, J. T. (2016). The Holon/Parton Theory of the Unit of Culture (or the Meme, and Narreme): In Science, Media, Entertainment and the Arts.In A. Connor & S. Marks (Eds.), Creative Technologies for Multidisciplinary Applications (pp. 208-246). New York: IGI Global.
And since 2016, I've been writing a book, expanding out the original 2016 chapter (above)...
(Which, is basically the same as the 2017 chapter, the 2018 chapter, the 2019 chapter, and the 2020 chapter, above.)
The original 2016 chapter was an Appendix to my 2016 PhD, is like: a unit of culture, and keeps getting replicated. Republished, once a year. Selected, Varied, and (re)-Transmitted. SVT. The evolutionary algorithm. It's like a viral meme. Hey wait, it IS a viral meme. A unit of culture, spreading out in bio-culture, or, adaptive radiation of a unit, or, whatever.
And so, that whole time, i.e. up till a week ago, I never knew, someone else had published, a VERY similar book to the one I've been writing, for 4 years...
Well, ok - very similar in many ways, but very different in others.
So - I guess, I could retitle this blog post:
In Praise of some specific Parts in the book `Cultural Science' (Hartley & Potts 2014),
And, I very-politely beg-to-differ about other Parts of it..?
...but hey - that's academic conversation for you.
If we all agreed 100%, there'd be nothing to `argue' about.
(Maybe.)
Anyway, the good news is, me finding out about Hartley & Potts (2014) makes my job (in finishing this book I'm writing) sooo much easier...!!
So - thank you Hartley & Potts (2014) !
There is, now, a whole bunch of stuff, I don't need to say for the first time ever in a book, as somebody else has "said it for me", already...
In their book. In 2014!
(Hey, this is great... So, rather than criticize me for saying a lot of the stuff that's in my book, maybe go criticize Hartley & Potts, first. :)
Or if you praise them, praise me too for arriving at the same (or similar?) conclusions. Independently.
Anyway - so, this is my book I'm writing: (& it's only taken 4 years so far)
It's 70,000 words - and I was going to publish at that length, but my new publishing deal means it will be 110k words.
So - in realizing - just a week ago - that the great book (Hartley & Potts 2014) exists, and I had also arrived at a whole bunch of the same conclusions, (but some, quite different!) independently, (without knowing about their book) - I am reminded of, scientific multiples.
...Scientific Multiple Discovery.
Because, have you ever read D K Simonton's great book on creativity in science...?
Simonton, D. K. (2004). Creativity in Science: Chance, Logic, Genius, and Zeitgeist. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Because - in that, D K lists a whole bunch of: scientific multiples.
Here's just some of 'em:
(Hey - and check this out too: a wonderful & great Metascience presentation by DK. It will make you a genius. Maybe.)Anyway, so - when 2 independent thinkers (like Darwin and Wallace, Newton and Leibniz) independently converge on the same scientific truth (or a very similar scientific truth)...
It always reminds me of:
2 guys (or gals, or they/thems), unknowingly climbing the same as-yet-unscaled / unconquered mountain-peak - from either side - only to arrive at the top - and suddenly find the other guy.
Another : `rugged [intellectual] frontiersman'!
So - when they both simultaneously arrive at the summit, and both go to stick their flag in it, they halt - as they see the other guy, also looking very surprised!
Which all reminds me of The Simurgh, by Jorges Luis Borges. (One of my favourite short stories. But I digress.)But, you see - also there's clouds all around the mountain, so - they both can't tell, if it's a local or global maximum (highest mountain peak, locally, or globally). There might be a better (higher) one, nearby...
...Or - maybe I arrived, 6 years later (or 2 years later, in 2016?) at the `top' of what I thought was a previously-unscaled mountain peak, (...a local - or global - maxima, or, highest point of the knowledge-landscape) and found a campsite there, abandoned for 6 years (or 2 years)...!
Although I did first publish this idea in 2013, so, maybe I got there a year ahead? (Who even cares. Time, Schmime.)
(But - is the campsite "abandoned"? Wait, aren't Potts & Hartley still there? We shall see.)
Actually, I may even have accidentally arrived at a higher local maxima, i.e. a global maxima...?
As - their views (2014) are only part of "the big picture" (vista) that I can see...?
(As their "demes" are cities - and see those, i.e., `cities' (& towns, or villages), within this very all-encompassing scientific model of mine...)
Anyway, so I've read 8 pages of of this article, below, and before I read on, I wanna point out, where I'm thinking the same, and where I differ, from....
Hartley, J., & Potts, J. (2014). What is Cultural Science? (And what it is not.). Journal of Cultural Science, 7(1), 34-57.Actually - wait, maybe I'll just point out the differences , as otherwise: this will take too long. :)
Also I want to note: I think Hartley & Potts started working on their stuff, in: 2006...?
Then in 2008, was started up: Cultural Science Journal.
And in 2014, it was published the book:
Hartley, J., & Potts, J. (2014). Cultural Science: A Natural History of Stories, Demes, Knowledge and Innovation. Sydney: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
So, anyway - let's start with the 2014 journal article, then get on to the book. (As, I read it. Literally.)
Bear in mind - I'm only reading them both: now.
Right now.
So - this is all very first impressions stuff...!
I may change my mind, "Ron".
(i.e. "lateR on", aka `Ron'. & Sorry for the Australianese here. Or not.)
...I've never blogged on a book (or article) before, as I was actually reading through it.
Usually, I wait till I've finished reading something (a unit of culture, like an article - or a book), and only then, go back and: blog on it.
So this is: new.
Let's see how it goes?
Ok - so what do I agree with, in this (2014) article?
But when I say "what do I agree with" I mean, what am I doing the same, only different?
Remember this (below) is the article I'm talking about, first. (We'll get to the book, later. Ron.)
Hartley, J., & Potts, J. (2014). What is Cultural Science? (And what it is not.). Journal of Cultural Science, 7(1), 34-57.
OK so - Starting with, the Abs[t]ract:
`Hartley and Potts (2014) argue that cultural science represents a new theoretical
and methodological approach to the study of cultural structure, dynamics and use.' (Hartley & Potts, 2014, p. 34)
Good. I like it already.
...I think I have one of those, too!
(And, I didn't know, anyone else had pulled this off, yet. I thought I was gonna be the first...? Thank goodness, I don't have to be. Phew.)
Next sentence, of the Abstract:
Ah, see --- now, there's the first difference, right there.`We explain how this differs from the extant analytic frameworks of cultural studies, both as a research program and as a policy platform.' (p. as above, i.e. p. 34.)
As I understand this (so far), Hartley and Potts (2014) are coming out of the discipline of Cultural Studies ;
And - I'm not...!!!
At all.
I'm coming out of the disciplines of: Communication Science, Information Science, Systems Science, and, Computer Science.
So - there's your first big difference, right there.
In: Schools of Thought...!
I don't do: Semiotics , or, Ideologies (eg Karl Marx, etc) . I like Science.
(By choice, just my preference: not to ever go there, again, if possible...? I've been there, and I vastly-much-prefer Karl Popper to Marx, and, Systems & Information Science, to Semiotics... You get the idea.)
...Just me? I may be weird. (I like to do Science, every single chance I get.)
Moving on a bit (still in the Abstract of Hartley & Potts 2014, JoCS):
`Cultural science, then, is a new model of the cultural processes involved in socio-economic evolution and innovation of knowledge-making demes.' (p. 34)Ah yes - I see the difference here too...
Where Hartley & Potts use demes , I use: memes ...
Ok - so, How to best explain the difference to you?
(To: my stuff. Evolutionary Culturology. )
Well, here's one way:
Here are some definitions I use: (I don't see any Definitions so far, in Hartley & Potts 2014, by the way)
JTV’s Definitions he likes to use, in `Evolutionary Culturology':
Culture – units that are: ideas, or processes, or products [and, they can be any 1, 2 or 3 of those, at once]. (These units can be internal to a mind/body or external to it, see Popper’s `3 Worlds'). These units are structured as HOLON/partons. Which have 3 Laws. These things, called memes, or units of culture, occur in: Units, & Levels. You can find them, using the 3 Laws. Which are laws of: Physics.
Evolution - Evolution is a process that occurs, (the evolutionary algorithm), on units (memes, HOLON/partons). The units that get `spat out' of the system by the algorithm, actually change over time in the: ideas, processes, products that occur, when the evolutionary algorithm (e.g. Selection, Variation, Transmission, and there are a few others too) operates on them, in an ecosystem. Same in biology, as in culture.
Ecosystem - A product, a system (a unit, a HOLON/parton, with inputs & outputs - and an algorithm inside it), whether biological or cultural, or even bio-cultural.
Actually - let's also go to Merriam-Webster on this one:
`Definition of ecosystem(Source: Merriam-Webster online )
`the complex of a community of organisms and its environment functioning as an ecological unit'
Sure, I agree with the above Merriam-Webster definition, but - they only talked about organisms as the units...?
What about: units of culture?
There are cultural ecosystems, too...!
Seriously. Read my 5 book chapters on it.
Or read: Hunter Creative Industries (Final Report) (2019)
Where, they have this model of an ecosystem:
Source: HCI Final Report (2019)
Okay - back to my definitions I like to use: (currently, anyway?)
Creativity - see the bipartite - and the tripartite - standard definitions of creativity. eg (Runco & Jaeger 2012)
Runco, M. A., & Jaeger, G. J. (2012). The Standard Definition of Creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 24(1), 92-96.
i.e. A creative artifact is one judged new and useful by its environment (the Field for a Domain).
Or the tripartite definition of creativity adds: `surprising'.
So: creative = New, Useful, and Surprising.
And my last Definition, for now anyways:
MLS – Multi-Level Selection. ...See David Sloan Wilson on it. (I arrived at MLS, via: Computer Science. Not so much, via Biology. But, if anyone else likes MLS, I like their ideas, already :)
...I actually go all-out, with MLS,
See, this diagram of mine, for example:
The levels above are all
levels of Selection
. In my view. As they all compete. (And - more importantly - co-operate!)So - I think, with using demes, (like, a city), I have actually encapsulated/included Hartley & Potts's (2014) view of `the unit'...?
It (the `deme' or `city') is just one of the levels (and, units!) in the memes diagram, above...?
And below - I have highlighted their: "demes" (cities) as a unit.
See what just happened ? I Selected, Varied (add some red stuff), and Transmitted, my diagram.
...I go nuts with the units, and get 'em all: all the way up (to multiverses, which: probably exist - especially if we're in a Sim) and down, to quarks, and whatnot. Like David Bohm, I think these units and levels, go infinitely upwards (larger) and downwards (smaller.) ...I could be wrong, but let's see?
Anyway - all of the units in the diagram above (organs, organisms [people], towns/cities (i.e., "demes"?),) are HOLON/partons - aka memes. aka units of culture... all governed by the 3 Laws of HOLON/partons.
But - that's just me.
(...Call me a `big thinker'...?)
Also I would note:
Systems (i.e., which are also HOLON/partons) are made of: energy, information, and matter.
And, all organisms are algorithms (see: Harari 2017, Homo Deus, on that.)
In fact all processes are: algorithms.
(But hey, I came up through Computer Science, remember? So I like: algorithms. Computer programs are algorithms. So are, the processes, inside systems, algorithms...! An algorithm is just: a recipe.)
Remember, memes, units of culture, (e.g. books, ) are: ideas, processes, products.
A book is a product. So is a person: a product. (...A biological one. In fact a bio-cultural one. As all biology has culture - i.e. information - in it. Systems are: energy, matter, and information - right?)
So a deme (a city) is just one of the (many, multilayered) memes in my: HOLARCHY/partarchy...
So I kinda see: the bigger picture...?
Not just: cities ("demes"), as units of culture (or: units of `socio-culture')...
Also, I reckon: go nuts with this tool (below), to find units of culture (aka, `memes'):
Look for fractal things that obey those 3 Laws, and hey - Bob's your uncle!
There's your unit of culture!
So - yes - I agree, demes, or `cities' are units...
But - so are lots of larger - and smaller - things, in my view...?
(Use that tool above, the 3 Laws, to find 'em. And: study 'em! Scientifically.)
The above (Velikovsky's 3 Laws of HOLON/partons) is a scientific instrument.
And, hey - it's free!
It's a: conceptual tool.
I made it.
And now, I give it to you.
It's an idea, a process, and a product - all at once.
(A meme. A unit of culture.)
Hey... Look how fractal everything is getting, now?
If you're using it, You're now - Using: a unit of culture to find: units of culture...!
But, yeah - I go nuts with that tool:
e.g.
So - I use it to find the units of culture (memes) in: words, sentences, books - songs, inventions, anything you like, in culture...
So; yeah.
See: my five book-chapters (2016-2020)...
...Or - wait for my booky-wook.
Anyway, so - if this is the definition of Cultural Science (2014):
`Cultural science, then, is a new model of the cultural processes involved in socio-economic evolution and innovation of knowledge-making demes.' (Hartley & Potts 2014, p. 34)
Then, I am not quite doing, their: `Cultural Science'...?
I am doing, something, slightly bigger...?
(More: all-encompassing... All of culture. All of it.)
I call it: Evolutionary Culturology...
Here's a diagram, to show what it is.
Anyway - back to the next bit of the Abstract (in Hartley & Potts 2014, i.e., the journal article, not the book), that I want to talk about:
`The paper is in three sections, the first on the exhaustion of cultural studies;' (p 34)
Again, I don't go in for Cultural Studies myself, but I use other methods (and models) to think about: stuff.
More, Science-based stuff.
I don't like `Postmodernism' (and, most Continental Philosophy) at all, and try never to use them; I think it's all very anti-Science?
...I try and do: Science - all the way, Hosay.
But - that's just me?
Hey also - I have a weird Question: I don't know the answer yet, but - I do wonder why, the Journal of Cultural Science isn't listed here, in the list of Cultural Evolution journals, on the CES webpage...?
Maybe, it was judged: not Science-y enough...?
...Dunno?
Anyway. There you go.
Maybe one day I will uncover that current: mystery-to-me.
Here are the journals, currently listed on there (as at: 14 Jan 02021):
Behavioral and Brain SciencesCliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural EvolutionEvolution & Human BehaviorEvolutionary Human SciencesEvolutionary Studies in Imaginative CultureJournal of Cognition and CultureJournal of Cognitive HistoriographyJournal for the Cognitive Science of ReligionJournal of Evolutionary EconomicsNature Ecology & EvolutionNature Human BehaviorPNASSource: The CES websiteSo... Who knows, why JoCS isn't in there?
(Not me.)
One day, maybe I will ask someone who knows.
Ok - back to the Abstract:
`The paper is in three sections, the first on the exhaustion of cultural studies; the second on the emergence of cultural science;' (p 34)
Hey - wait, this reminds me: some Schools of Thought run out of ideas, once they exhaust their subject matter, and models (theories)...
I think that is what the above means: i.e., "the exhaustion of cultural studies".
Then they usually go back to an earlier idea and start over.
(An idea like: Evolution!)
Actually - this seems to be exactly what has happened, in (Hartley & Potts 2014) turning from Cultural Studies, to: Cultural Science...?
Like a `branching off'. A new species.
See my model of Koestler & Garstang's evolutionary spiral, sometime.
It's like, how Philosophy split off (...speciated?) into different "breeds", or "schools", or whatever...
I like: Evolutionary Philosophy, myself. Ed Gibney (2012), and all that.
And, Evolutionary Systems Philosophy. (e.g. Laszlo 1972), and so on.
And - what with `Cultural Science' splitting off from Cultural Studies, it's kinda like how:
"Philosophy is the soil out of which the Tree of Scientific Knowledge Grows."
(Velikovsky of Newcastle, 02021 - in this blog post, right now)
(I just made that up, how do you like my metaphors? I like to go around, speaking in parables, like some messiah, or guru, or Cult Leader or something. Except, I hate all that stuff, I like: Science... Popper and all that. I know, it's called `Ev Cult', but it's: a new Science. ...Really!)
(...Maybe someone also said that parable above, before me, as, it's the obvious move, really?)
And so is: Ev Cult.
It seems to me (so far?), that Cultural Science came very close, to it.
But, I see, it used: demes, and not memes.
And: stuff like that.
(I note: Some "branches" of the tree of knowledge die, and fall off...
(e.g. PoMo...! And Anti-Science stuff like that.))
...Maybe Cultural Studies is dead now, too?
Anyway, the last bit of that sentence, from the Abstract:
`...and the third on some implications for cultural policy – illustrated by reference to Matthew Arnold’s policy on language preservation.' (Hartley & Potts 2014, p. 34)
Well - I don't think I (yet) know what that is, but - I will read on... and, find out!
Then, try and talk about it.
So as for `Our Story So Far' (hey - another meme!) -
...that's my analysis of selected (and varied, and transmitted) parts, of the Abstract of:
Hartley, J., & Potts, J. (2014). What is Cultural Science? (And what it is not.). Journal of Cultural Science, 7(1), 34-57.
And - so far - I think the main differences I can see, are:
Hartley & Potts (2014) apparently use demes, but - I use memes, as the units (see: my `3 Laws of HOLON/partons', which also includes: demes/cities... and, everything else, too...?)I don't use: Semiotics... At all! (Don't like: PoMo, or Continental Philosophy. At all. It's Anti-Science. I like: Science, and Evolution.)I don't use `Cultural Studies' theorists/models/lenses. (e.g., Hoggart, Marx, etc - Not my cuppa tea! :)Anyway - I need some sleep now, but - soon, will comment on the rest of the article, and then move on to the book:
Hartley, J., & Potts, J. (2014). Cultural Science: A Natural History of Stories, Demes, Knowledge and Innovation. Sydney: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
And, will point out the key differences there, as well...
...Differences, to my: Evolutionary Culturology.
But, also - a question I now wonder about:
Do the two domains (`Cultural Science' and `Evolutionary Culturology') ...compete, or co-operate? ...Or, a bit of both?
Both those domains of knowledge, are units of culture (memes), and - see, the 3 Laws of HOLON/partons...
So... Food for thought-!
And now, To sleep, perchance to dream :)
(Hey, another meme, or, unit of culture. From: Shakespeare.)
(...I like co-operating, rather than competing, usually. But - that's just me. :)
Depends on the situation, I guess...?
And so -
To Be Continued...!
(...hey, that's another meme!
A: Unit of Culture...
A HOLON/parton.)
[Try that new tool above... You'll see!]
PS - Hey I also watched these 2 videos, below - one by Potts, and one by Hartley - I liked them! A lot!
I'll talk about them, too.
(Probably? If I get time. Gotta finish this Ev Cult book!)
Blockchain and the future of work, Prof. Jason Potts@RMIT Night (2019)
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...And - maybe, a way to say this, is:
I think, maybe Hartley & Potts (2014) saw `the trunk', but maybe I saw, the whole elephant?
(As, their `deme' - as "the unit, of culture" - is but a tiny part, of my: whole, broad view of the units...)
I think, their Grand model (or Grand theory) of Culture (and Evolution) is a special (edge) case of my [vastly bigger] Grand Theory (or Model) of Culture (and Evolution)...?
...Am I right?
We shall see?
Anyway - I sure hope, maybe, we can: co-operate...!
(Not: compete.)
Or, our discoveries, can co-operate...
...Maybe my stuff helps them - as well as, their stuff (2014) helping me...?
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D
(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle)
Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Rugged Frontiersman & Random Guy
(and, also The StoryAlity Guy)
aka Humanimal
(or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)
More stuff:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
Researchgate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379
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