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Metaphor |
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The Chapters |
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Introduction |
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Language of Metaphors |
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Genetics of Alphabet Soup |
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Inherent Programming |
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The Fractal Chemist |
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Nanosemaphore |
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Knowgramming |
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Fun Stuff |
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The Usual |
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A Language of Metaphors: Chapter 8
Applying the Language of Metaphors
We'll now look at a few examples of metaphors where a complex system of relationships is involved. I'll call them "Complex Metaphorical Systems", but you may call them what you like. Here are their titles...
Cardiovascular Surgery on a Pool Table
The Internal Combustion Restaurant
Wormhole Chess
The Genetics of Alphabet Soup
Nanosemaphore
Each of the above titles merge between seemingly distant concepts. This is common among metaphors - a tool of association - where ones' greater familiarity with one subject is used as the stepping stone to the understanding of another. The titles then, are an unexplained link; perhaps, however, inspiring one to conclude the deeper meaning.
As you read each example, try to focus on the principles involved rather than the words: This will help you overcome the habit of applying traditional definitions to words over the universal aspects of their meanings. The colour "red", may become more metaphor-ready by substituting it with "a bandwidth of energy". As clearly generalized as this new meaning may be, it certainly may help one see the similarity between sight, hearing and television reception.
When you've read through these examples, be sure to drop by the metaphor examples page!
1) Cardiovascular Surgery on a Pool Table
A coin-operated pool table accepts money in exchange for play, ultimately trapping balls in an oblong chamber as each is knocked into pockets, waiting for more money. "Feed the machine" we say: Money is the energy of society.
When the balls are released from the chamber, as a result of a pumping action with the coin-slot, they roll down a single chute, becoming exposed to the player, then they are placed in a tight formation on the table. The game begins by scattering the balls and ends as a result of pushing the balls into any of the several pockets. These balls drop into a series of chutes that end up back in the chamber, awaiting the next game.
The chamber and coin-slot mechanism form the heart of the pool table.
The coin-slot mechanism is the heart muscle of the pool table.
The coin is the (food) energy that drives the machine.
The chutes are the vessels and arteries of the pool table.
The balls are the blood cells of the pool table.
If you've ever used one of these tables, these metaphors are effortless connections. But to test the model, we'll need to bring in a heart surgeon. Certainly e (did I mention that I thought we could save ourselves a lot of gender-complexity and writing troubles by replacing "he/she" with "e" !!) would need a medical referral. Luckily, the coffee shop had already called the surgeon, complaining of pool balls stuck in the chamber.
The surgeon sees trouble instantly. Performing an exploratory, e sees that there is a build-up of a sticky, gooey substance inhibiting the free flow of pool balls through the chamber. Knowing that a scraping process may cause irreparable harm to the smooth rolling surface, e uses a solvent to gently remove the goo. "Yep", e says, preparing to close, screwdriver in hand, "...it was just a small build-up of cholesterol". E added, "The best way to deal with this is prevention - try and keep this stuff out of your system".
That solvent is to that goo what many new medicines are to cholesterol.
So it seems our pool table is "alive": That the repair person actually performs a service not so dissimilar to the wellbeing of the pool table as the surgeon is to the patient - only "e" makes house calls! We may further extrapolate, that without such care, the pool table, becoming "out-of-service", would no longer receive the money that it needs to survive. As a result, it will, as dead things do, gradually become buried in the humus of the coffee shop - old newspapers or other stray junk - until finally removed from existence in this socio-economic realm. Perhaps the surgeon may still find use for some of its' still-functional parts, transplanting them into another sick, compatible pool table.
Extending this metaphoric system, we may ask "Since the pool-table technician may remove and refurbish a single part into nearly new condition, as is seen in 'reconditioned auto-parts', then why can't we take damaged organs from cadavers, recondition them, then transplant them in recipient patients ?". Why not, indeed ?! No doubt that one day this metaphorical hypothesis will one day ring true, opening the door to organ reconditioning , potentially saving the lives of the many would-be recipients that die each year. The metaphor, then, paving the way for a reality.
2) The Internal Combustion Restaurant
The four stroke engine we find in most cars is a marvel of technology - an invention that has shaped (if not deformed) the society we live in. The cycles - intake, compression, ignition and exhaust - form a sequence of material handling we will find everywhere. Intake is a process that brings a group of things into a single domain; compression forces these things to overlap or intermingle in some way; ignition is an event that causes an irreversible change to these things, resulting in some form of desired product; and exhaust is the expulsion of the undesired remains of the transaction.
We enter a restaurant through a doorway - a valve that quickly closes behind us. We are then seated at the smallest suitable table, in order that the most customers may fit in the space of the restaurant. We eat, in exchange for money - the faster this process, the greater the restaurants' turnover; hence potential profitability- filling our stomachs while emptying our pockets. We then exit the system, back through that "valve", allowing the process to repeat. Intake, compression, ignition and exhaust have found themselves indoctrinated in society long before the internal combustion engine. Not convinced ? Here are few signs we may see at a restaurant.
"Please come in" or "enter" signs are the intake of the restaurant.
"Please be seated" is a sign of compression of the restaurant.
"Enjoy your meal" is a sign ensuring healthy ignition in the restaurant.
"Exit" and "Thank-you, come again" are signs of exhaust of the restaurant.
Even our signs act like hormones: Stimulating or directing the process in a desired fashion. Here are a few diagrams of "four-stroke-engine" metaphors from my notes... (these are VERY large files, for those of you with slower systems)
Use your imagination with these examples - you're sure to find many. In each case, a dimension or group of dimensions is brought into one place, then compressed into a tight space. At this point, I will note that the space is saturated - under optimum conditions nothing else will fit. Then a relatively tiny "something" is added, for example the spark from a spark-plug. This causes the space to supersaturate or explode, causing a change to occur, usually of space or energy. The original ingredients have been transformed in some way, producing something presumably of greater desirability and something of lesser desirability than either of the first two ingredients. Desirability, such as demonstrated in the "gold and inner tube" comparison from the earlier chapter, is always a matter of perspective. The customer had greater desire for food where the restaurant had a greater desire for money. This imbalance of forces is the impetus for the whole process of the restaurant business, as it is any other form of exchange.
Money is the exhaust of the restaurant customer.
A spent customer is the exhaust of the restaurant.
Look over the examples again, this time focusing on the general principles involved. This single process can be the source of unlimited metaphors. Why ? Because most - if not all - change in this universe can be attributed to supersaturated dimensions or an imbalance of forces. Of course, if you play chess, you may have already known this...
3) Wormhole Chess
Before I write about the dimensional aspects of chess, I would like to point out that it appears that this classically men's game is actually a women's game. I'm sure a few jaws have dropped on that statement. But you will notice that a pawn can become queen, or any other piece except king, upon (!) making it to the opponents side. Since sex changes were not possible during the inception of this game; and since that pawn can never become the one certainly-male piece - but can become any other, including the one that is certainly female - it appears that the only male on the board is the king. The king has little power, is quite vulnerable, and does not have any form of potential. Of course, in this apparently Amazon-esque society, the king would be imperative for populating society, but nothing else. Since the primary goal of the game is to capture the other king, not obtain territory nor kill the warriors, perhaps then, the goal of chess is to acquire breeding stock !!
Chess is quite reflective of the dimensions. The board, a finite realm of two dimensions, is similar to a finite view of the universe. There are two basic types of movements on this field : The finite players and the infinite players. The finites are the king, the pawn and the horse; who move in single bounds of a pre-established length. The infinites are the queen, the bishop and the rook; who move in bound of any length, theoretically able to escape the two-dimensional limits imposed by the board. We'll now examine the directions in which they may move.
A pawn is biased forwards. It may only go straight unless altered in course by removing another piece at either of its' forward diagonals. It starts out with the option of a two-square move, as if running out into battle, but then continues at a single square pace.
A rook moves infinitely either forwards or sideways; the bishop is similar in movement to the rook, but is offset by 45 degrees. The queen is a precise super-imposure of the rook and the bishop. The king is a queen with a single square limit, or a ring around itself.
I'll ignore the horse. Just kidding. The horse is special - very special - relativity special.
When playing chess, one moves the horse at 30 or 60 degrees, or two squares forward, then one to the left or right. But unlike, say, the queen, who influences, or is influenced by, anything along her path and at her possible destination, the horse only influences, or is influenced by, anything at its' possible destination. It moves around on a two-dimensional plane, but it can do so despite any pieces in between. It jumps.
This jumping is exclusive to the horse. It leaves the two-dimensional universe, disappearing temporarily into the third dimension, then reappears in the second dimension. In the world of theoretical physics, it has wormholed - gone into a relative hyperspace to which is its' own unique privilege - then re-entered the drab existence of the two-dimensional realm. A wormhole of the chessboard. So much for high-tech.
4) The Genetics of Alphabet Soup
This metaphor actually sets the stage for the concepts explored in Nanosemaphore (below), a theory exploring the very meaning of the DNA language. The physical nature of the letters found in alphabet soup combined with our practices of the written word, are the basis for a re-examination of the various structures found in the molecules of life.
5) Nanosemaphore
Have you ever coined a word, then found out you have mis-spelled it in all your writings ? I have. This used to be called "nanosamophore", until my Mom corrected me. If ignorance is bliss - I'm in Nirvana!!
Nanosemaphore is a theory about the workings of DNA and, ultimately, all biochemistry. It is my belief, at this time, that on each of the four fundamental chemical building blocks are two "arms", each representing the same binary logical ones and zeroes we find in our computer. For more on this theory, which I have begun to publish on another site, click on the link below. (Be forewarned that it is terribly unedited and incomplete, but it does convey many of the basics)
This metaphoric relationship suggests that the practice of semaphore - flags that are waved to convey data - is quite similar to the processes deep within every living creature. It is a very simple version of semaphore, with one flag in each hand, either up or down, totaling four potential combinations. If one side of the DNA has two flags up, the other, matching side has two flags down. Whatever positions the flags are in on one side, the other will be the opposite.
The theory examines what role this system plays in the workings of DNA, quickly leaving semaphore behind and replacing it with computer terms. In other words, the theory is a chain of metaphors from different areas.
Patchwork Metaphors
Since metaphors are an instrument of communication, it is far more important that the message be conveyed than it is for all content metaphors to be continuous. A patchwork metaphor (a chain of metaphors of various kinds) may be the only communicable approach to an expression, but if one has created a Rosetta Stone within their minds, capable of jumping freely from metaphor to metaphor, then they can easily understand a patchwork metaphor. If you understood that sentence, you have proven my point.
Try this out with any paragraph: Replace the subject with another subject (such as the pool table repair being replaced with surgery). Rewrite the sentence in accordance to the new subject, placing metaphors in place of each principle and object. For example, replace the pool table with "urban transportation", the balls now becoming the cars, the pumps are the stoplights and tollbooths, and so on. The money now becoming "fuel", you can create the revised sentence from above...
The coin is the (food) energy that drives the machine.
The coin is the fuel that propels the machine.
The coin is the sugar that feeds the machine.
The coin is the incentive that motivates the machine.
