Re: The Eonic Effect and the problem of evidence Stream and Sequence

In a message dated 9/22/2002 8:34:29 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Nemonemini@aol.com writes:


> You post is packed with stuff, let me quickly answer this question. The reference is to David King, The Crisis in Our Time, Susquehanna U Pr. 1988, p.181. 
> That's a Univ stack item, have fun finding it. So let me summarize it, the sine curve starts about -700 and rises to its first peak near Roman Times, then starts its trough in the medieval period, then is on its way upagain in modern times. 
> There are many problems with that, but what I found interesting was the spontaneous gesture of someone actually doing that to the data. It shows that the 'eonic effect' is something people intuitively reckon with, you can't avoid it. Explaining it is another matter. 


Keep in mind (if you have studied the summary of the model) that it is really two things at the same time, the stream and sequence  aspects. The model of the 'eonic' or intermittent effect, shows the overlay of a system on the temporal stream of world history in all its diversity. 
Thus this sine curve clearly mixes two things, a point that is obvious if you reflect that the graph starts in Greece and ends in Europe. What? Why not start in Australia and end in Northern Alaska? 
You see, we are already talking about a relationship of one universal history and a a series of regions In this case we tend to confuse ourselves by saying 'western civilization'. 
That won't get us off  the hook. If you look at the full model you will see the way in which the succession of regions is analyzed and explained (eonic jump diffusion). But we can't really start a graph in one place and move to another without defining a totality of some sort. All that is provided, although the details get a bit weird. 

This brings in the stream and sequence aspect. That is, we have a model of how a large scale process operates in relation to the 'streams' of local places. The 'eonic sequence', by hypothesis (and data to match) operates in phases on different streams. Thus we see that our Greek phase taken from the Greek stream contributes to the eonic sequence, same for the next step. 
It is possible this total goes through this kind of 'sort of' ' sine curve, e.g. we do see a sort of general midddle ages. But the rise of the modern is assoicated with a phase in a particular place. 

Think of the game of life applied to the surface of a sphere. We would have it divided into a series of regions. Some regions switch on, others off. We could also create a sequence from regions. 
Whatever the case, such genetic algorithms do resemble the eonic effect in general in the sense that a genetic algorithm is a discrete model overlaid on a continuous model. Thus we have a 'discrete' series of steps in the game of life. 

So this double aspect to the eonic model is not totally bizarre. In any case, this sign curve might, say, be a property of the stream aspect, while the transitions or phases might follow another process. 
You could analyze an on-off switch in that fashion, I suppose. The steady current and the effect of the device with its transform of the current. 

The approach to the eonic model needs to stay simple, using periodization. but there is not doubt that deep properties lurk in it, although their exact analysis would be very difficult. 
A lot of the world system debate over the period around 1500 might benefit from this consideration of two systems in one. 
How justify that? Who knows, it works. 
So we would have the stream and sequence, the phase from 1500 to 1800, the phase being a step in the sequence, and the stream being the history of Europe from the middle ages, etc..
The completion of the phase results right on schedule in the confusions of globalization.  Those participating in the phase area don't seem to get it. The transformation is global, while the vehicle to do that seems local. 
John Landon
Website on the eonic effect
http://eonix.8m.com
nemonemini@eonix.8m.com