Information Edaphology: How can we restore “Nature” to our ... · Key-Words: - Edaphology, Stacking, Nature, Leibnizian Space and Time, Permaculture, Nursing Theory, Narrative

Information Edaphology: How can we restore “Nature” to our Cybersociety?

OSAMU KATAI, TOMOKO OHYA, TAKAYUKI SHIOSE, and HIROSHI KAWAKAMI

Department of Systems Science, Graduate School of Informatics Kyoto University

Yoshida Honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501 JAPAN

Abstract: - We analyzed the essential characteristics of “Nature” by referring to the novel ways of agriculture such as “Natural Farming” and “Permaculture” and also to the well-known method of architectural and environmental design, “Pattern Language”. These analyses resulted in a novel notion of a system structure called “stackedness” which reflects the essential characteristics of “naturalness” in various ecosystems, particularly, “soil” used in farming. Next, we analyzed the existence and the co-existence of individuals (selves) are analyzed by referring to “nursing theories” and “narrative approaches to caring”. Also, by introducing Leibnizian notions of space and time and also notions of the Petri net and Existential Graph, we introduced a deep structural model of “self” and a “plant-like” model of “narrative generation” in a soil-like “stacked” infrastructure, which provides us with ways to restore naturalness to our Cybersociety. Key-Words: - Edaphology, Stacking, Nature, Leibnizian Space and Time, Permaculture, Nursing Theory, Narrative Approach, Self, Petri Net, Existential Graph 1 Introduction “Cybersociety” today is essentially based on information technology that is highly technology-oriented, which sets the Cyberworld more and more apart from the “natural” world. Thus, we need a way to restore “Nature” to our Cybersociety for the purpose of creating a harmonious, symbiotic, and eco-conscious social life. For this purpose, we focus our attentions on elucidating the essential characteristics of “naturalness”. To examine thisnconcept, we will refer to novel ways of agriculture, that is, “Natural Farming” [1] by Masanobu Fukuoka and “Permaculture” [2] by Bill Mollison. Also, we will refer to the well-known method of architectural and environmental design, “Pattern Language” [3] by Chirostopher Alexander.

These analyses resulted in the novel notion of a system structure we call “stackedness.” One of the typical realizations of stackedness is “semi-lattice,” which is known to be an essential underlying structure of the patterns in Pattern Language. This type of layered structure permits us to examine various viewpoints and design interpretations, which are the origin of its “naturalness.” Thus, the importance of “stackedness” is elucidated to form multi-faceted and

polymorphic “orders” similar to the ecosystems in Natural Farming and Permaculture. One of the most typical entities with a stacked layered structure in natural environments is the “soil” used in farming; it is an indispensable agricultural resource [4]. In Natural Fariming and Permaculture, particular attentions have been paid to this resource, with the predominant thinking being that we should not plow it. Rather, it should be plowed by “nature,” that is, plants, weed, insects, animals, bacteria, etc. will naturally “plow” the soil in the most effective way. Recent research in brain sciences and also various business practices that enhance human potential mental abilities suggest that our mental worlds, particularly the unconscious, seem to be very similar to the natural world in that they posses stacked structures. To use an analogy, it seems beneficial to search for a way of “planting” or “natural farming” in order to develop “trees” or a kind of “forest.” More precisely, we have to develop “rhizomes” that may bridge the unconscious and conscious worlds. This rhizome can be regarded as intra and inter personal media of the “plant-like” structures that relate and support individuals (persons) in a more “natural” and “deep” way. We will refer to “caring” theories

Proceedings of the 10th WSEAS International Conference on SYSTEMS, Vouliagmeni, Athens, Greece, July 10-12, 2006 (pp739-747)

such as nursing theories [5] and narrative approaches [6], that support us in creating various concepts and methods that are much more “human-oriented” than today’s ones based on traditional engineering methodologies. The underlying “soil-like” infrastructure for the generation of these rhizomes is also investigated. The evolution and compilation of this infrastructure is related to the circulation of creation, utilization and death of events and experiences in our daily lives. 2. Essential Characteristics of Nature Focused on Agriculture and Environmental Design 2.1 Natural Farming by Masanobu Fukuoka A famous agricultural method that reproduces natural conditions as closely as possible was invented by Masanobu Fukuoka [1]. This is an extreme agricultural method, known as agriculture “without measures” (“mu-i” in Japanese), that is to say without effort. There is “no plowing,” “no weeding,” “no agricultural chemicals,” and “no fertilizers,” and this maintains the ecological diversity of the farm to a high level. Fukuoka realized that it is not possible to understand natural ecological systems such as farms by means of cause-effect relationships, which he named “no causal theories” (“mu-in-ron” in Japanese). Also, he emphasized being “indiscretive” (“mu-fun-betsu” in Japanese), that is, not to discriminate against things. Thus, there in no notion of vermin in the Natural Farming method.

Fukuoka carefully examines the way natural ecosystems organize themselves. He found out that ecological diversity in farms can be attained in a way that means each grain crop is sown before the previous one is harvested. This is done by distributing the seeds among the existing crop. He also introduced the notion of “seed balls” (“nendo-dango”) that contain various kinds of seeds covered with clay. Hence, this encourages various kinds of crops to grow simultaneouly. This way of growing plants was named “Time Stacking” by Bill Mollison who is an Australian ecological researcher who introduced a now famous agricultural techinique called “Permaculture,” which is described below.

2.2 Permaculture by Bill Mollison The word “Permaculture” is ca blend of the words “Permanent” and “Agriculture” or “Culture” and refers to techniques that encourage sustainable environmental design and community life [2]. This way of agricultural method seeks to attain “cultivated ecology” by controlling a farm’s ecological system by cutting or removing the native relationships among the ecological elements using agricultural chemicals and chemical fertilizers but also searching for ways to augmenting and supplementing relations among these elements. This results in very complex ecosystems that do not necessitate human commitments like in Natural Farming.

Fig.1 An element of Permaculture

Thus, each element of a farm’s activities and characteristics by counting the farm’s “inputs” (need), “outputs” (behaviors and products), and “characteristics” (relationships with environments) as shown in Fig. 1.

This analysis is used to weave elements together into a kind of “tapestry of relations” making an output of one element the input to another element. If the output of one element cannot be an input to another element, it is then considered a “pollutant” to the environment. Also, if the input to an element is not covered as the output of another element, that is, it is not supplied by another element, then it necessitates “extra work” for humans, as shown in Fig. 2 in the case of keeping “hens (chikens)”.

In this way, not only plants, insects, animals and bacteria but also water, atmosphere (wind), sunlight, thermal energies, and human effort are fully utilized. This complex ecosystem is also characterized as “Plant Stacking,” which utilizes the “principle of self-regulation” in ecosystems.


Fig.2 Network of relations around hen in Permaculture

2.3 Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander The notion of “Stacking” is more clearly used in the famous environmental and architectural design methodology called “Pattern Language,” which was introduced by Christopher Alexander [3]. He searched for a way of producing “natural” and “timeless” designs that are harmonious for both humans and nature and coined the phrase “A city is not a tree.” He introduced the notion of a “pattern” that characterizes the quality of environment. Actually, he defined more than 250 patterns whose combinations characterize environmental qualities. His phrase means that patterns should not be organized into a tree-like structure but rather into a semi-lattice structure. The pattern language is one of the origins of the well-known object-oriented programming paradigm.

Fig. 3 The patterns around the pattern: “Old People Everywhere

The difference between a tree structure and a semi-lattice structure is shown in Fig. 4. In the tree in Fig. 4(a), each element can be interpreted only in a unique way, while in the semi-lattice structure in Fig. 4(b), two ways of interpreting a pattern are possible. In this type of environmental design, this multiplicity is the main cause of “naturalness. Layered structures such as semi-lattices are also characterized as “Stacked Structres” with weak but multilateral linkages between layers.

Fig. 4 Comparison between tree and semi-lattice

This structure permits us to create a range of imaginative potential interpretations due to the above linkages among layers. Thus, we can say that the essential characteristics of naturalness are elucidated as a system structure such as “stackedness” [7]. 2.4 Deep Ecology by Arne Naess The ecological phiolosophy called “Deep Ecology” introduced by a philosopher Arne Naes, is also related to the above discussions [8]. This type of ecologism is quite a contrast to the predominant theory of ecologism, the “Shallow Ecology”. In Deep Ecology, human beings are not separated from the remaining part of the nature but as one part of nature, which leads to the idea of “Biosphere Egalitarianism.” The prevailing attitude in Deep Ecology is that an environment-oriented activity should not be performed passively but should rather be positively and proactively performed for the goal of “self-realization,” which takes the “self (extended Self)” as being woven into the whole world of entities and events without the time limits of past and future and without the spatial limitations. Thus, improving


oneself in turn improves the whole world (the extended Self).

Behind the notion of “extended self-realization” lies the research on semantics by Naess . He says there lies an idea of judgmental structure in Protagoras’ question about “Both-And-Answer”. For example, the judgment that the water is hot or cold is influenced by the temperature of the hand used to measure the water. We can advance this idea, extending it to encompass the fields of Natural Farming and Permaculture. Naess says that an individual (human being) is regarded as a “juncture” in the whole network of relationalities. Based on such “relationalism” idea. 2.5 The Stackedness of Soil The soil used in farming is produced using a combination of natural and artificial activities [4]. Usually, soil consists of three main layers due to the stacking of natural and artificial products, resolvents, and commitments over the foundation soil. The richness of this layered structure is the main resource of Natural Farming and Permaculture. These methods search for ways of enriching soil without or with the least amount of human intervention. In farming, the soil is the place of the “circulation of birth and death” of various elements. Elements such as deceased plants, animals, and insects are decomposed into various components which then become resources for the birth and growth of the next generation of plants, that are then used to compose other living elements. 3. Nursing Theoretical and Narrative Approaches to Human Existence 3.1 Nursing Theories and the Roy Adaptation Model Nursing theories are concerned with inventing and discovering various focal concepts and nursing methods by examining various events and their relevance in nursing interventions with the purpose of describing, explaining, and prescribing care processes. They provide us with basic frameworks and aspects for organizing various pieces of knowledge, information, and events in nursing processes. The monumental book "Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What Is It not" by Florence Nightingale was not noticed for many years. After 1950 [9], various theories based on these were developed. These

theories can be categorized into four groups: Environmental Theories; Need-Oriented Theories: System Theories; and Interaction-Oriented Theories [5]. Among these, we use the Roy Adaptation Model that belongs to System Theories group.

The "Roy Adaptation Model" [10] in nursing regards a human being as an adaptation system. A client’s adaptive behavior is regarded as the product of four kinds of "Adaptive Modes" (Fig.5): Physiological Mode; Self-concept Mode; Role Function Mode; and Interdependence Mode.

Fig. 5 The Roy Adaptation Model of nursing In the Roy Adaptation model, Environments are

considered to consist of stimuli that are input to yield clients' responses. Nurses modify stimuli to promote client adaptation in these adaptation modes.

According to Roy’s definition, whether a client action is adaptive or not is given as the defining factor in it being effective or not for attaining goals for the client such as survival, development, and maturation. These adaptation modes are regarded as human beings’ adaptive response systems by processing various stimuli under various environmental changes. (a) Self-concept Mode "Self-concept" by Roy's definition is the product of various mediations and affections about oneself. This is reached through examining one’s own internal perceptions and also the responses of others. Self-concept consists of the "Physical self" and "Personal self." The physical self consists of corporeal senses and body image. Corporeal senses mean one's own direct perception of one's body such as "tired", "cheerful", etc. Body image is the way a person regards his/her appearance such as being fat, slender, attractive, etc. Personal self consists of three


components: Self-consistency; Self-ideal; and the Moral-ethical Self. (b) Role function Mode A role is a unit of social function and is classified into Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Roles. A primary role is given from one's age, sex, and developmental state, which is mainly prescribed according to one's age such as "a boy aged five, prior to entering primary school” or "a young girl at the age of sixteen." These are some examples of the primary role. A secondary role is related to specific social roles and hence is usually fixed with concrete terms such as being a "father", "parent", "mechanical", etc. A tertiary role, on the other hand, is freely chosen and is temporally set such as being a junior football coach, being a member of a student club, etc.; things that will not affect other roles. (c) Interdependence Mode By "interdependence" we refer to a highly intimate interpersonal relationship, and the "Interdependence Mode" is used to maintain the appropriateness and social wholeness of a client, which consists of dependent and independent actions. Everyone needs to be loved, supported, evaluated, and respected by others, and people also need to respond to others. The important thing is to balance dependence against independence. The key point here is interaction between the clients and others, while in the Physiological Adaptation mode and Self-concept mode the key points are focused solely on the clients' side. Usually, people important to or related to someone are called "Significant Others" or "Support Systems", and the mutual satisfaction of the needs of both sides are sought by developing proper interactions and interrelationships, i.e., by balancing dependence with the independence. 3.2 Narrative Approaches to Caring and the Notion of Self As a method of compassionate and caring communication, we refer to the Narrative Therapeutic approaches [6]. In these approaches, a therapist helps a client to change his/her “Dominant Story” into an “Alternative Story”. In this case, the dominant story is a socially consistent but distressing story for the client while the alternative story is not subject to commonly

accepted social norms, but is for less stressful to the client, and hence is preferable to the client.

In narrative approaches, a therapist talks with his client to deduce various narratives that are regarded to gradually organize an alternative story in a natural way. The basic philosophy is that narratives themselves constitute the world, that is, the world is not considered to exist prior to it being organized by our speech acts. The following figure (Fig. 6) is an example of an intermediary (transient) story about a student who refuses to attend school (school refusal). This figure is made by referring to the framework of Roy adaptation model, where circles are associated to predicates that relates to the various modes of nursing described above.

Fig.6 The self model of a person suffering from

school refusal by the Roy adaptation model This representation is based on the existential graph

[11] introduced in the next section and consists of a layered structure where the transversal relations between the layers make the network “stacked” (semi-lattice), which enables the emergence of various narratives [12], [13]. Also, note that this way of enlarging (extending) the self can be regarded as a means of aspiring to the notion of “extended Self” espoused in Deep Ecology. 4. Co-existence in Space and Time Viewing from Newtonian to Leibnizian 4.1 Space of the co-existence of individuals E. T. Hall introduced the notion of Proxemics [14], which examines the spatial order of the co-existence


of individuals (people). More precisely, he classified this order in terms of the distance between people. This classification resulted in four categories: “intimate space”; “social space”; “personal space”; and “public space”. These spaces are dependent on the underlying cultures. .

Apart from these studies on “real space,” some theorists say that we have a much wider notion of space, such as “Mental Space” introduced by G. Fauconnier for discussing human linguistic activities [15]. Thus, we can say that our conception of space is much broader and is not restricted to real space like the notion of the “Newtonian three-dimensional space.”

Newton's conception of space is idealized in the sense of its homogeneity (being shift-invariant) and being independent of time. In daily life, however, the time is sometimes dependent on the existence of the entities inside the space; we have to change the clock in accordance with our location on the earth. Also, we often measure the distance between two locations not using geometric distance but by trip time. Thus, we can say that space and time are closely related to each other in real life. 4.2 Leibnizian Noitons of Space and Time We now arrive at the other extreme of the Newtonian conception of space, where space is not separated from time and is not independent of the existence of entities within it. This extreme is the concept of space and time given by Wilhelm Leibniz [16]. He introduced this idea while debating in correspondences with Clark, who argued for the Newtonian side. Leibniz defined Space and Time as follows [17], [18]:

Space: the order of the co-existence of entities Time: the order of the succession of events

More precisely, Leibniz defined space as a collection of “places,” which are in turn defined as follows:

Suppose an entity (A) is replaced by another entity (B) and all other entities remain the same. If entity B has the same relationship with other entities as the ones entity A had, then we can say that A (and B) has occupied (occupies) a “place.”

As can be readily seen, this conception of space is much more general than Newton’s abstract, standardized, homogeneous, absolute notion of space.

Thus, we can apply the Leibnizian conception of space and time to a broader range of real-life problems.

It is clear that this definition of space is not separated from the definition of time, that is, the concept of “co”-existence itself involves the notion of the “concurrency” of events, which means these events are “not” in the order of succession. This is in direct contrast with Newtonian notions of space and time where these notions are independent of each other.

This discussion is closely linked to the notion of Chronemics [19] introduced by E. T. Hall. He introduced means of classifying time conception: “M-time (Monochronic time)” and “P-time (Polychronic time).” M-time is dominantly used is the United States where jobs are usually scheduled to be carried in a sequential manner and whose order is decided or planned beforehand. Meetings are usually set by a “clock”, that is, by Newtonian time. In Latin countries on the other hand, P-time is predominantly used where jobs are carried out by chance, that is, in an event-dependent manner. In P-time, meetings are not set in advance but are held when the related people gathered by chance. Namely, Leibinizian time rules these countries.

5. Introduction of Peirce’s Existential Graph and Petri Nets 5.1 Peirce’s Existential Graph To express the co-existence structure of individuals, we introduce the idea of the “Existential Graph” proposed by Charles Saunders Peirce [11]. This graph describes propositional logic expressions and predicate logic expressions as networks. Now, we will focus on the predicate logic expressions. Individuals are expressed by line segments and predicates by nodes (circles). For example, the proposition “a gives b to c” is expressed by “gives(a,b,c)” in a logical form and is graphically represented in the existential graph shown in Fig. 7.

Fig.7 Existential graph representation of the proposition: “a gives b to c.”


If there is another proposition such as “a likes b” that involves the same subjects a and b, the propositions are shown by Fig. 8.

Fig.8 Existential graph representation of the

proposition: “a likes b and also gives it to c.” We have shown that co-existence structures can be

represented by networks where the individuals are expressed by the curved line segments and predicates (relations) as nodes (circles). This expression is in a sense dual form, compared with the usual network representation where nodes stand for individuals and arcs (nodes) for relations. When the usual graphs are used to express relationships among more than two entities, we need hyper-graph representations. However, our relational network representation is more natural than the usual ones because there is no need to introduce complicated hyper-graph expressions. 5.2 Introduction of Petri Nets To treat various problems, we should introduce the notions of time and space we discussed erlier Leibnizian Time and Leibnizian Space. We now take note of the fact that these notions can be naturally reflected (substantiated) by the network structure of Petri Nets [20] where places sharing the same transition in common constitute a Leibnizian space, that is, the order of co-existence, while a firing sequence of transitions constitutes a Leibnizian Time, that is, the order of the succession of event occurrences. Leibnizian space can be represented by the aforementioned Peirce’s existential graph. Also, to represent Leibnizian time, we employ not Petri Nets but Occurrence Nets [20], which are derived by pursuing the movements of tokens of a Petri Net through their transition firings. An occurrence net may represents not a history of events but a context or situation. For instance, the “Both-And Theory” case of Protagoras is depicted in Fig. 9.

Fig. 9 Representation of “Both-And-Theory” of

Protagoras by introducing an Occurrence Net-based context structure 6. Rhizome of Events and the Edaphology of Narratives

6.1 Rhizome of Events The Leibinizian Space and Time introduced in above can be schematically represented as shown in Fig. 10.

Fig.10 Schematic representation of Leibnizian Space

and Time by Existential Graph and Occurrence Net


One of the most interesting and important aspects of this representation is that these evolution and generation of Time and Space is caused by accidental encounters (“En-gi” in Japanese or in Buddhism). This “dependent-origination” (“en-gi”) structure of time is closely related to the notion of M-time in Hall’s chronemics. These event encounters are woven into the evolutionary course of time and space as a “Rhizome of Events,” as shown in Fig. 11.

Fig.11 Dependent-origination and Rhisome of events

6.2 Edaphology of Narratives Leibnizian Space and Time can also be introduced by linguistic activities. Imagination is evoked by words or sentences such as those found in poems. For example, one of the most famous Japanese poem forms called “Haiku” consists of just 17 characters (three words with the syllable pattern five, seven, and five). Below is the most famous example, written by the poet Basho:

“The old pond; A frog jumps in, -- The sound of water.”

If we interpret the poem as a frog jumping into a

nearby river and reminding Basho of a memory of an old pond, then mental Space and Time (the Leibnizian Spaces and Time concepts) may be depicted as shown in Fig. 12.

Fig.12 One interpretation of Basho’s poem Anyway, our imaginative abilities can integrate the

various rhizomes of events into socio-cultural stories that will in turn affect the generation and evolution of Leibnizian Spaces and Times and hence the rhizomes of events. This emergent loop is depicted in Fig. 13. These event rhisomes can be interpreted as “plants” that bridges the unconscious and conscious worlds and that also brings individuals together. We can regard these rhizomes as intra and inter personal media that support existence and co-existence of people. Community, society, culture, customs, climate, and nature in the figure constitute a “stacked” natural infrastructure that plays a role similar in that of “soil” in Natural Farming and Permaculture. 7. Concusions We have introduced a kind of “plant-like media”, a rhizome of events that can be used to restore “Nature” to our cybersociety. We did this by analyzing the fundamental structures of the existence and co-existence of individuals through the notions of “stackedness” and Leibnizian Space and Time. Roughly speaking, the “soil” found in our cybersociety is organized according to the mental spaces of each individual, community culture, society, culture, customs, and the artificial and natural environments. Collections of the rhizome of events are used to organize the narratives of individuals, thus


Fig.13 Edaphological interpretation of the

emergence of narratives with the rhizome of events

restoring the “nature” of human beings and that of society and enabling harmonious co-existence. References: [1] M. Fukuoka: The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming, Rodale Press, 1978. [2] B. Mollison: Permaculture: A Designers' Manual Second edition, A Tagari Publication, 2002. [3] C. Alexander: A Pattern Language, Oxford University Press, Inc. 1977. [4] M. Fried and H. Broeshart, The Soil-Plant System, Academic Press, Inc., 1967 [5] J. B. George (ed.): NURSING THEORIES: The Basis for Professional Nursing Practice, Appleton & Lange, 1995. [6] P. Abels, S. L. Abels, Understanding Narrative Therapy: a Guidebook for the Social Worker (Springer Series on Social Work), Springer, 2001 [7] H. Inada, H. Kawakami and O. Katai: Chu Space Theory of Pattern Language and its Implications in Symbiotic Environmental Design, Proc. of VJFUZZY2001, 2001, pp. 317-323. [8] A. Naess, Ecology, community and lifestyle, Cambridge University Press, 1989

[9] Florence N. Nightingale: Note on nursing: What it is and what it is not (Com. Ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott. (Original publication 1895) [10] Sister Callista Roy and H. A. Anderson: The Roy Adaptation Model, 2nd Eds. Appleton & Lange, 1999 [11] D. D. Roberts, The Existential Graph of Charles S. Peirce, Monton & Co., 1973 [12] A. Notsu, O. Katai and H. Kawakami: A Framework of Caring Interaction by a Network Model of Client's Concepts Based on a Nursing Theory and Naive Psychological Approaches, Proc. of Active Media Technology 2001, 2001, pp. 279-290 [13] A. Notsu, O. Katai and H. Kawakami, Design of Caring Communication Media Based on Nursing Theory and Interpersonal Psychology, Proc of IEEE TENCON 2001, 2001, pp.11-17 [14] E. Hall: The Hidden Dimension, Doubleday, New York, 1966 [15] G. Fauconnier: Mental Spaces, New York: Cambridge University, 1994 [16] O. Katai, H. Kawakami, T. Shiose and A. Notsu, Slow Information: Contemplating Time and Space from Newtonian to Leibnizian, T.Ibaraki, T.inui and K. Tanaka(eds.), Proc. of Int. Conf. on Information Research for Development of Knowledge Society Infrastructure 2004, 2004, pp.140-149 [17] K. Okruhlik and J. R. Brown (eds.): The Natural Philosophy of Leibniz, D. Reidel Pub. Co., 1986 [18] G. W. Leibniz: The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence, H. G. Alexander (ed.), Manchester Univ. Press, Barnes and Noble, New York, 1976 [19] E. Hall: Beyond Culture, Doubleday, New York, 1976 [20] W. Reisig, PetriNets: An Introduction, Springer Verlag, 1985


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Information Edaphology: How can we restore “Nature” to our ... · Key-Words: - Edaphology, Stacking, Nature, Leibnizian Space and Time, Permaculture, Nursing Theory, Narrative