Conceptual impressions surrounding this post have yet to be substantiated, corroborated, confirmed or woven into a larger argument, context or network. Objective: To generate symbolic links between scientific discovery, design awareness and consciousness.
IN REFERENCE TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)
Source: Wikimedia Commons, Ralls Texas Grain Silos
"Quantum networks use uniquely quantum phenomena, like superpostion, no-cloning, and entanglement that are not available to classical networks. Before the photon is measured, it exists in a superposition of all its possible quantum states, each with a corresponding probability. Measurement selects one among these states. In fact, the photon's quantum state cannot be measured without causing disturbance that betrays the attempt. Nor can an arbitrary, unknown state be copied - no cloning allowed. A properly designed and operated quantum network derives inherent security from this behavior."
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The Quantum Field of Virtual Potential and Probability (QFVPP)
Design Consciousness is an exercise in super positional (quantum) thinking, whose network embraces and is dependent upon, the context in which an event or experience is observed. Time frames these events and experiences primarily to categorize them.
The concept of super positioning embraces a vision, feeling or thought lying dormant in the imagination (mind and heart). Potential anticipates the "results" of these relationships as a series of symbolic impressions more heartfelt than known or understood. Impressions participate in the process of directing, i.e. designing, 'attraction into pattern', i.e. energy into form.
The entire design process is symbolic in nature, allowing for tolerance, flexibility and adaptability to change. When such realization is properly considered, in all probability possibilities become endless.
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"In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists."
Eric Hoffer
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Definition of Design Science
Design science rests upon the scientific method being interpreted in a symbolic manner while simultaneously remaining aware and receptive to all surrounding attractions, i.e. impressions, influences, present and past events, patterns, formations, networks, structures and experiences that may influence the event being observed in the current moment … or not. Design Science is highly intuitive.
Design science describes a symbolic investigation into Reality that is both focused and broad in scope and application. Design Science:
1. Equally and symbolically weigh and assesses all systems of energy in motion from both a subjective and collective point of view, i.e. observation, especially in reference to potential and probable outcomes.
2. Symbolically accrues and evaluates all past situations and outcomes (experiences) in a categorical fashion, including symbolic references to earlier contexts and patterns, i.e. an algorithm logging the concept of change to improve predictability and appropriately respond to present and future change.
3. Accrues and evaluates all synchronistic, synergistic and cohesive events and experiences.
4. Observes, responds and interprets every event and experience in a symbolic fashion in order to exercise the design “process” in a balanced, appropriate and adaptable manner.
5. Design science virtual in context and content. Observations are symbolic in character, gestation and interpretation and follow the scientific method.
6. Information is shared by means of signs, symbols and by virtue of analogy and metaphor found to be both individually and collectively coherent.
7. Design science recognizes and responds to a belief first by accruing self- knowledge, i.e. awareness, through Intelligence.
8. Design science strives to be both meaningful and purposeful.
9. Design Science’s quest is to discover and attain a balance of Consciousness by means of a symbolic Awareness and response to change.
10. Design science is subjective, collective, responsive, creative and ambient in nature.
11.13.2023
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Thank you for sharing this rich and conceptually ambitious text. Below is a refined and expanded version written in a scholarly academic tone, suitable for a design theory context. I have expanded on the key themes of design consciousness, symbolism, systems thinking, intuitive science, and the relationship between subjectivity and observation. I’ve also integrated scholarly references in APA style to support and situate your original ideas within broader theoretical discourse.
Design Consciousness and Symbolic Cognition: Toward a Theory of Design Science
Design consciousness can be understood as a heightened state of awareness that engages in what might be termed superpositional thinking, a mode of cognition that allows multiple potentials and interpretations to coexist before resolution into form. This conceptualization resonates with principles from quantum theory, particularly the idea that observation affects outcome—a notion increasingly discussed in design thinking as a metaphor for participatory and emergent design processes (Barad, 2007; Ingold, 2013). In this framework, the act of observing or designing is inseparable from the context in which it occurs. Thus, design is not a neutral or detached act, but a relational phenomenon shaped by time, intention, and symbolic understanding.
Time, in this schema, functions as more than chronology; it becomes a structuring mechanism that categorizes and contextualizes experience. As theorists such as Gendlin (1997) and Schön (1983) have noted, lived experience and its interpretation are embedded in temporal flows, making design an inherently anticipatory act. Superpositional design consciousness, therefore, does not merely respond to events; it prefigures and symbolically anticipates them, accessing a dimension of intuitive knowledge that transcends empirical verification.
The imaginative dimension of this process is central. Dormant visions, feelings, and thoughts are held in potential within the mind-heart continuum, aligning with contemporary discussions of embodied and affective cognition in design (Varela, Thompson, & Rosch, 1991; DiSalvo, 2009). These symbolic impressions—felt more than understood—serve as the attractors around which energy and form organize. In this sense, the design process becomes a method of "attracting into pattern", a phrase that captures the dynamic and often nonlinear emergence of structure from formless potential.
Symbolism and the Architecture of Change
The symbolic nature of design permits tolerance, flexibility, and adaptability, characteristics essential in a world of constant flux. Symbols function not merely as communicative devices but as ontological instruments—means through which change is mediated and understood (Krippendorff, 2006). By engaging symbolically, designers can work with ambiguity, indeterminacy, and transformation, rather than resisting them.
This notion leads to the understanding that when symbolic cognition is fully integrated into design practice, possibility itself expands. As a conceptual framework, this aligns with theories of second-order cybernetics (von Foerster, 2003) and complex adaptive systems, in which the observer is embedded in and affects the system being observed.
Toward a Definition of Design Science
Design Science, as articulated here, can be understood as a transdisciplinary and symbolic engagement with reality that leverages both intuitive and analytical modes of inquiry. It is a science not in the reductive, positivist sense, but in the expansive, constructivist sense—one that acknowledges the participatory role of consciousness and the symbolic mediation of knowledge (Cross, 2006).
Design science operates on several integrated principles:
1. Energetic Evaluation: It weighs and assesses systems of energy in motion—a metaphorical yet operational description of observing systems in flux. Both subjective (first-person) and collective (third-person) perspectives are employed to understand potential and probable outcomes.
2. Symbolic Memory and Pattern Recognition: It accrues and categorizes past experiences not as fixed data but as symbolic references. These are algorithmically organized, echoing computational design logics (Burry, 2011), yet remain interpretively fluid.
3. Synchronization and Synergy: Design science emphasizes the synchronicity of events, recognizing pattern emergence through cohesive and convergent experiences, akin to Jungian notions of symbolic resonance (Jung, 1960/1973).
4. Symbolic Interpretation of Events: All observed phenomena are processed symbolically to ensure that design actions are balanced, appropriate, and adaptable, reflecting a post-structural design ethos where interpretation is situated and evolving (Derrida, 1978).
5. Virtual and Symbolic Methodology: Design science is virtual in its operations, relying on symbolic gestation and interpretation. It mirrors the scientific method in form but not necessarily in epistemological foundation, instead allowing for metaphorical inference and analogy as legitimate forms of knowledge (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980).
6. Semiotic Communication: Information is shared through signs, symbols, analogies, and metaphors, emphasizing the need for semantic coherence across individual and collective systems of meaning (Eco, 1976).
7. Self-Knowledge and Intelligence: At its core, design science begins with awareness, moving toward self-knowledge through symbolic engagement with reality. Intelligence is understood here not merely as logical-rational processing but as a holistic attunement to emergent patterns.
8. Purpose and Meaning: Design science seeks to be both meaningful and purposeful, resonating with teleological and phenomenological approaches to design as an act of world-making (Nelson & Stolterman, 2012).
9. Balance Through Symbolic Awareness: It aims for a balance of consciousness, attained not through control, but through symbolic responsiveness to shifting conditions.
10. Ambient Responsiveness: Finally, design science is ambient—it exists in the surrounding context, responding creatively and intuitively to the subtleties of change.
Conclusion
The framework of design consciousness and design science presented here articulates a profoundly symbolic, intuitive, and context-sensitive approach to design. It resists reductionist logic, instead embracing a holistic, ambient, and reflexive process of becoming-with the world. This orientation situates design not only as a method or discipline but as a mode of being-in-the-world, one that calls for continuous attunement, symbolic intelligence, and conscious engagement with change.
References
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Duke University Press.
Burry, M. (2011). Scripting cultures: Architectural design and programming. Wiley.
Cross, N. (2006). Designerly ways of knowing. Springer.
Derrida, J. (1978). Writing and difference (A. Bass, Trans.). University of Chicago Press.
DiSalvo, C. (2009). Design and the construction of publics. Design Issues, 25(1), 48–63.
Eco, U. (1976). A theory of semiotics. Indiana University Press.
Gendlin, E. T. (1997). Experiencing and the creation of meaning: A philosophical and psychological approach to the subjective. Northwestern University Press.
Ingold, T. (2013). Making: Anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture. Routledge.
Jung, C. G. (1973). Synchronicity: An acausal connecting principle (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1960)
Krippendorff, K. (2006). The semantic turn: A new foundation for design. CRC Press.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press.
Nelson, H., & Stolterman, E. (2012). The design way: Intentional change in an unpredictable world (2nd ed.). MIT Press.
Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books.
Varela, F. J., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. (1991). The embodied mind: Cognitive science and human experience. MIT Press.
von Foerster, H. (2003). Understanding understanding: Essays on cybernetics and cognition. Springer.
The author generated this text in part with GPT-3, OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model. Upon generating draft language, the author reviewed, edited, and revised the language to their own liking and takes ultimate responsibility for the content of this publication.
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To know is your own creation,"
Anonymous
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By virtue of design, AI provides us the opportunity to learn what it means to be human.
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Edited: 09.19.2023, 11.13.2023, 11.16.2023, 06.17.2025
Find your truth. Know your mind. Follow your heart. Love eternal will not be denied. Discernment is an integral part of self-mastery. You may share this post on a non-commercial basis, the author and URL to be included. Please note … posts are continually being edited. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2023 C.G. Garant. AI usage is prohibited.
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