Design Constraints for the Making of Statements
In a previous dispatch, titled “Living Words”, I examined the fifteen processes (or “structure preserving transformations”) that the architect Christopher Alexander found to be pivotal (i) for the deconstruction of deathly worlds composed of domineering statements, implements, and environments and (ii) for the (re-)construction of living worlds composed of convivial alternatives.
In a subsequent dispatch, titled “Pivotal Processes”, I proposed that, while all fifteen of Alexander’s processes have their place in my project, four of his processes are more pivotal for my project than all of the others. These four pivotal processes are the processes of (i) NOT-SEPARATENESS, (ii) DEEP INTERLOCK AND AMBIGUITY, (iii) ROUGHNESS, and (iv) SIMPLICITY AND INNER CALM.
This dispatch sketches out ways of treating the four aforementioned processes as “design constraints” when (de-/re-)constructing statements, but those of you who have read my Four Essays on Reparations will recognize that these “design constraints” are, in fact, the conditions of possibility for “leaky designs”. My informative anecdotes in this dispatch are the statements discussed in my recent dispatches on fugitive planning — (i) planning to flee from schooling, (ii) planning to flee from financing, (iii) planning to flee from calendaring and clocking, and (iv) planning to flee from profiling.
Please note that the repetitiveness of this text is very intentional. The repetitions serve to encourage the reader to attend to the form of the “design constraints” relative to the contents being subjected to them. The reader is advised to take their time and linger over the repetitions and their differences. Readers of modernist novels might read this dispatch as they would read a section of Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans.
All of the quoted passages in this dispatch are from The Phenomenon of Life, the first volume of Christopher Alexander’s The Nature of Order. In keeping with my previous dispatches, I have interpolated the terms “focus” and “foci” wherever Alexander has used the terms “center” and “centers”, respectively.
“The correct connection to the world will only be made if you are conscious, willing, that the thing you make be so indistinguishable from its surroundings, that, truly, you cannot tell where one ends and the next begins, and you do not even want to be able to do so.”
“The sophisticated version of this rule, which comes about when we apply the rule recursively to its own products … which ties the whole together inside itself, which never allows one part to be too proud, to stand out too sharp against the next, but assures that each part melts into its neighbors, just as the whole melts into its neighbors, too.”
NOT-SEPARATENESS is “the way the life and strength of a focus depends on the extent to which that focus is merged smoothly — sometimes even indistinguishably — with the foci that form its surroundings.”
If we are to flee from profiling, it is imperative that no determinate individual or group be burdened with a profile that can be retrieved, reviewed, and judged separately from the profiles of other neighboring individuals/groups.
With respect to fleeing from schooling, this would mean, for instance, (i) dispensing with academic transcripts that assume the existence of separate individuals and (ii) dispensing with education statistics that assume the existence of separate interest groups divided by race, sex, and income. Consider, if you will, the present schooling system that assigns each and every individual their own academic transcript. The individual's academic transcript is retrieved, reviewed, and judged by powers that determine whether or not an individual will advance from one grade of schooling to the next. The schooling system is, thus, designed to allow some individuals to advance from grade to grade while others are left behind — profiling some individuals as “deserving educational advancement” and others as “not deserving educational advancement”. In this way, the schooling system assumes that each individual is only responsible for their own education; caring for one’s neighbor is not built into the school system as a responsibility. Might we reject the deathly individualism built into the schooling system by making it more and more difficult for powers to retrieve, review, and judge individuals’ educational profiles separately, one-by-one?
With respect to fleeing from financing, this would mean, for instance, (i) dispensing with credit reports that assume the existence of separate individuals and (ii) dispensing with economic statistics that assume the existence of separate interest groups divided by race, sex, and income. Consider, if you will, the present financial system that assigns each and every individual their own credit report. The individual’s credit report is retrieved, reviewed, and judged by those who determine whether or not an individual will be given access to credit. The financial system is, thus, designed to ease access to credit for some individuals and to deny ease of access to others — profiling some individuals as “creditworthy” and others as “uncreditworthy”. In this way, the financial system assumes that each individual is only responsible for their own finances; caring for one’s neighbor is not built into the financial system as a responsibility. Might we reject the deathly individualism built into the financial system by making it more and more difficult for powers to retrieve, review, and judge individuals’ financial profiles separately, one-by-one?
If we are to flee from calendaring and clocking, it is imperative that no determinate period of time be counted separately from other neighboring periods of time.
With respect to schooling, this would mean that determinate educational periods (e.g., class periods, academic quarters / trimesters / semesters, years of coursework, etc.) should not be counted separately from other neighboring educational periods. Consider, for instance, our present schooling system for individuals. Curricula, conceived of as “planned sequences of instruction”, are divided up into classes which run on set days for set periods of time over the course of which students are required to submit a set number of assignments on set dates. These classes are to be taken in a set order over the course of a set series of quarters, trimesters, or semesters, adding up to set number of years of coursework. The purpose of this stepwise periodization of learning is not at all to ensure that learning takes place, as this could be done in a far less regimented manner. The purpose of this stepwise periodization is to ensure that powers can identify whether and when a given individual has “fallen behind” in school — in other words, it is to ensure that powers can “objectively” measure out how “uneducated” the individual who has “fallen behind” is relative to those individuals who have managed to keep up or skip ahead in their schooling. In this way, powers are formed that can “objectively” discriminate against those who are “retarded” in their schooling and grant privileges to those who have advanced further and more rapidly in their schooling. In other words, the stepwise periodization of schooling serves to encourage individuals to “out-learn” each other, kicking up dust as they out-pace and leave others behind. Might we reject the deathly encouragement to “out-learn” built into the school system by making it more and more difficult for powers to count determinate educational periods separately, one-by-one?
With respect to financing, this would mean that determinate financial periods (e.g., working hours, bi-weekly pay periods, monthly billing cycles, fiscal years, etc.) should not be counted separately from other neighboring financial periods. Consider, for instance, our present financial system for individuals. As a contract worker or wage-worker, you have to clock in your working hours during every bi-weekly pay period. As a debtor and a renter, you have to make your monthly debt servicing payments and rent payments. To make ends meet, you need to clock in a set minimum number of working hours over the course of a set of bi-weekly pay periods to keep up with your monthly debt servicing payments and rental payments. If you do not clock-in the set minimum working hours and you fall behind on your monthly payments, you will be charged compounding late fees that you will have to pay in addition to paying your standard monthly payments. All of this serves to ensure that powers can identify whether and when you “fall behind” on your payments — in other words, all of this serves to ensure that powers can “objectively” measure out how “uncreditworthy” you are relative to those who have managed to keep up with their payments or make their payments ahead of time. In this way, powers are formed that can “objectively” discriminate against those who earn less and earn slowly and grant privileges to those who earn more and earn quickly. In other words, discrete periodizations of credits and debits serve to encourage individuals to “out-earn” each other, kicking up dust as they out-pace and leave others behind. Might we reject the deathly encouragement to “out-earn” built into the financial system by making it more and more difficult for powers to count determinate financial periods separately, one-by-one?
“In a surprisingly large number of cases, living structures contain some form of interlock: situations where foci are ‘hooked’ into their surroundings. This has the effect of making it difficult to disentangle the focus from its surroundings.”
“… a similar unification is accomplished through the creation of spatial ambiguity … a common example … is the house with a gallery or arcade round it … the space in the gallery belongs to the outside world and yet simultaneously belongs to the building.”
DEEP INTERLOCK AND AMBIGUITY is “the way in which the intensity of a given focus can be increased when it is [attached to / entangled with] a nearby focus, through a third set of foci that [ambiguously / indeterminately] belong to both.”
If we are to flee from profiling, it is imperative that the profile of a determinate individual or group becomes entangled with the profiles of other neighboring individuals/groups via a set of regional profiles that ambiguously belong to both the determinate individual/group and their neighbors.
With respect to schooling, the question is this: how can we make it so that powers can only ever retrieve, review, and judge regional educational profiles as opposed to the educational profiles of determinate individuals/groups? Imagine if we could replace academic transcripts belonging to determinate individuals with regional academic transcripts indeterminately belonging to neighboring individuals. Individualism would be discouraged as a result and, instead, we would be encouraged to find the willingness and the ability to care for our neighbors’ learning.
With respect to financing, the question is this: how can we make it so that powers can only ever retrieve, review, and judge regional financial profiles as opposed to the financial profiles of determinate individuals/groups? Imagine if we could replace credit reports belonging to determinate individuals with regional credit reports that indeterminately belong to several neighboring individuals. Individualism would be discouraged as a result and, instead, we would be encouraged to find the willingness and the ability to care for our neighbors’ earnings.
If we are to flee from calendaring and clocking, it is imperative that every determinate period of time becomes entangled with other neighboring periods of time via a set of transitional periods of time that indeterminately belong to both the determinate period of time and its neighbors.
With respect to schooling, the question is this: how can we make it so that powers can only ever count transitional educational periods as opposed to determinate educational periods? Imagine that credits towards graduation could not be divided up into separately counted courses with set term lengths and imagine that these separately counted courses could not be divided up into separate assignments with specified due dates — with the result being that powers could no longer pinpoint with certainty whether and when anyone has “fallen behind” in their schooling.
With respect to financing, the question is this: how can we make it so that powers can only ever count transitional financial periods as opposed to determinate financial periods? Imagine that billing cycles, pay periods, and working hours could not be specified and counted separately from one another — with the result being that powers could no longer pinpoint with certainty whether and when anyone has “fallen behind” on their payments.
“… The seemingly rough arrangement is more precise because it comes from a much more careful guarding of the essential foci in the design.”
“… Roughness can never be consciously or deliberately created. Then it is merely contrived. To make a thing live, its roughness must be the product of endlessness, the product of no will … Roughness is always the product of abandon — it is created whenever a person is truly free, and doing only what is essential.”
“… Roughness does not seek to superimpose an arbitrary order over a design, but instead lets the larger order be relaxed, modified according to the demands and constraints which happen locally in different parts of the design.”
ROUGHNESS is “the way that the field effect of a given foci draws its strength, necessarily, from irregularities in the scales, forms and arrangements of other nearby foci.”
If we are to flee from profiling, it is imperative that irregularities characterize all regional profiles that indeterminately belong to several neighboring individuals or groups. Regional profiles should not enable powers to pinpoint the average profile of a set of neighboring individuals/groups. To the contrary, regional profiles should span the range of the profiles of neighboring individuals/groups without ever enabling powers to pinpoint an average or “central tendency” that characterizes the range.
With respect to schooling, regional educational profiles should not enable powers to pinpoint the average educational profile of a set of neighboring individuals/groups. To the contrary, regional educational profiles should span the range of the educational profiles of neighboring individuals/groups without ever enabling powers to pinpoint an average or “central tendency” that characterizes the range. In this way, powers would not be able count on neighboring individuals/groups having an average educational profile; powers would only be able to count on there being a range of educational profiles amongst neighboring individuals/groups .
With respect to financing, regional financial profiles should not enable powers to pinpoint the average financial profile of a group of neighboring individuals/groups. To the contrary, regional financial profiles should span the range of the financial profiles of neighboring individuals/groups without ever enabling powers to pinpoint an average or “central tendency” that characterizes the range. In this way, powers would not be able count on neighboring individuals/groups having an average financial profile; powers would only be able to count on there being a range of financial profiles amongst neighboring individuals/groups .
If we are to flee from calendaring and clocking, it is imperative that irregularities characterize all transitional periods of time that indeterminately belong to several neighboring periods of time. Transitional periods of time should not enable powers to pinpoint an average period of time. To the contrary, transitional periods of time should span a range of times without ever enabling powers to pinpoint an average or “central tendency” that characterizes the range.
With respect to schooling, transitional educational periods should not enable powers to pinpoint the average time that it takes for a set of neighboring individuals/groups to earn enough credits to graduate from one determinate educational period to the next. To the contrary, transitional educational periods should span the range of times that it takes a set of neighboring individuals/groups to earn enough credits to graduate from one determinate educational period to the next without ever enabling powers to pinpoint an average or “central tendency” that characterizes the range. In this way, powers would not be able count on neighboring educational periods having an average time-to-graduation; powers would only be able to count on there being a range of times-to-graduation amongst neighboring educational periods.
With respect to financing, transitional financial periods should not enable powers to pinpoint the average time that it takes for a set of neighboring individuals/groups to enough credits to make their next payment. To the contrary, transitional financial periods should span the range of times that it takes a set of neighboring individuals/groups to earn earn enough credits to make a payment without ever enabling powers to pinpoint an average or “central tendency” that characterizes the range. In this way, powers would not be able count on neighboring financial periods having an average rate-of-payment; powers would only be able to count on there being a range of rates-of-payment amongst neighboring financial periods.
“The quality [of inner calm] comes about when everything unnecessary is removed. All foci that are not actively supporting other foci are stripped out, cut out, excised. What is left, when boiled away, is the structure in a state of inner calm. It is essential that the great beauty and intricacy of ornament go only just far enough to bring this calm into being, and not so far that it destroys it …”
“[I]nner calm is not only to be produced by [superficial] simplicity [alone] … the wild Norwegian dragon … has inner calm even though it is so complex … So it is not true that outward simplicity creates inner calm; it is only inner simplicity.”
SIMPLICITY AND INNER CALM is “the way the strength of a foci depends on its simplicity — on the process of reducing the number of different foci which exist in it, while increasing the strength of these foci to make them weigh more.“
If we are to flee from profiling, it is imperative that we gradually work to expunge those sets of regional profiles that powers can use to reverse engineer the profiles of determinate individuals/groups and the central tendencies amongst them; and it is imperative that we should only maintain those sets of regional profiles that effectively obscure the profiles of determinate individuals/groups and the central tendencies amongst them.
With respect to schooling, the aim is (i) to prevent powers from ever identifying determinate individuals/groups who have outlying educational profiles relative to neighboring individuals/groups and, in so doing, (ii) to prevent powers from subjecting outlying individuals/groups to special administration and supervision. This is to say, in other words, that powers should never be given the ability to identify unusually fast learners and unusually slow learners and to place them in separate special/specialized education programs that privilege fast learners and stigmatize slow learners (or vice versa). Rather, powers should only ever be given the ability to expand access to general education, making it more inclusive and less discriminating.
With respect to financing, the aim here is (i) to prevent powers from ever identifying determinate individuals/groups who have outlying financial profiles relative to neighboring individuals/groups and, in so doing, (ii) to prevent powers from subjecting outlying individuals/groups to special administration and supervision. This is to say, in other words, that powers should never be given the ability to identify unusually fast earners and unusually slow earners and to place them in separate special/specialized financing programs that privilege fast earners and stigmatize slow earners (or vice versa). Rather, powers should only ever be given the ability to expand access to general financing, making it more inclusive and less discriminating.
If we are to flee from calendaring and clocking, it is imperative that we gradually work to expunge those sets of transitional periods of time that powers can use to reverse engineer determinate periods of time and the central tendencies amongst them; and we should maintain only those sets of transitional periods of time that effectively obscure determinate periods of time and the central tendencies amongst them.
With respect to schooling, the aim is (i) to prevent powers from ever identifying educational periods with outlying times-to-graduation relative to neighboring periods and, in so doing, (ii) to prevent powers from subjecting individuals/groups to special administration and supervision during outlying educational periods. This is to say, in other words, that powers should never be given the ability to identify unusually fast learning periods and unusually slow learning periods and to optimize times-to-graduation during these outlying periods by subjecting individuals/groups to special administration and supervision during these periods. Rather, powers should only ever be given the ability to accommodate an ever widening range of times-to-graduation generally, across different educational periods.
With respect to financing, the aim is (i) to prevent powers from ever identifying financial periods with outlying rates-of-payment relative to their neighboring periods and, in so doing, (ii) to prevent powers from subjecting individuals/groups to special administration and supervision during outlying financial periods. This is to say, in other words, that powers should never be given the ability to identify unusually fast earning periods and unusually slow earning periods and to optimize rates-of-payment during these outlying periods by subjecting individuals/groups to special administration and supervision during these periods. Rather, powers should only ever be given the ability to accommodate an ever widening range of rates-of-payment generally, across different financial periods.
Coming Attractions
One question that you are likely to be asking yourself after reading all of this is, “How are we to determine which individuals, groups, and periods of time can be said to neighbor one another?”
In future dispatches, I will draw upon notions from general topology and other related areas of mathematics to develop some “anexact but rigorous” techniques for determining which individuals, groups, and periods of time can be said to neighbor one another.
Suffice it to say for now that one’s neighbors are not those whose dwellings are adjacent to one’s own dwellings. Rather, one’s neighbors are those whose everyday commutes cross paths with one’s own everyday commutes. In other words, to use a phrase that resonates with the language of general topology, one’s neighbors are those whose dwellings are “pathwise connected” to one’s own dwellings on an everyday basis. Whether the everyday basis in question is “every workday”, “every seventh day”, or “every holiday” must be left open.
