Abstraction in Action: From Process to Paradigm, Cognition to Code

 

A One-Time Lecture with BRenT Cooper, October 12th, 6 PM CET (free Access)

 
 
 

One 90-min live session + 30 min Q& A

There are those who think abstraction is “just simplifying,” those who worship their favorite model, and those who suspect abstraction is how power gets away with things. This session is for all three.

Brent Cooper will walk us through a fast, practical tour from Korzybski’s “consciousness of abstracting” (cf. Bill Sharp) to Scott McCloud’s visual grammar of simplification and symbol, to how abstraction actually works—from the 12-layer ladder (primordial → speculative) and the Ritzer 2×2 lenses (micro/macro × subjective/objective), . We’ll name the difference between vicious abstraction (distortion that hides cost) and virtuous abstraction (a clean cut you can act on, with traceability and stewardship). Expect tools, not tribalism.

Questions we’ll take seriously (and quickly):

  • How do you spot a misabstraction in policy, media, or metrics—and fix it?

  • What layer are you arguing at (neurology? law? platform incentives?) and how do you avoid level-mixing?

  • How do metaphor and visual simplification steer public action for good—or ill?

  • What does “consciousness of abstracting” look like as a daily practice?

What you’ll leave with

  • A 12-layer mental map of abstraction you can apply immediately.

  • The Ritzer quadrant as a pocket lens for any argument (mind, culture, stuff, systems).

  • A Good Abstraction checklist (purpose-fit, compression disclosure, stewardship, evolvability).

  • Two mini-tools: Abstraction Audit + Misabstraction Repair (rename · resize · rewire).

Who is this for?
Writers, artists, civic hackers, educators, platform folks, policy designers—anyone who suspects the map is not the territory and wants to draw better maps.

About your instructor

Brent Cooper is a sociologist of metamodernism and abstraction whose forthcoming series—Metamodernism in Motion, Abstraction in Action, Theory of Conspiracy, The Communist Planifesto, and The Fliminal Web—turns dense theory into usable tools for culture and governance.

 
 
 
Tom AmarqueComment