This is from a conversation at Wikiversity:

Good to see you back on the scene here, John. I read the Empathy paper. Nice. Especially the part about the congruency of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the OSI model. Nice! —CQ 02:01, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

The idea of layers, or levels

This text is from writing about my learning from working in theraputic environments[2]

Tying together ideas so apparently different was helped by my information engineering background; I adapted the abstract concept of “network layering” that links different abstract approaches to Internet communications. The different layers describe all the various aspects of network communication abstractly ranging from the user’s applications, through addressing and routing protocols to a physical layer that describes the wires and electrons. For every interaction on the Internet, each layer is utilized and they all work towards the same purpose but each layer describes, abstractly, a different aspect of the communication linking process. Empathy, as emotional communication, can likewise be described in layers as every empathic action has many facets, perhaps even more than Internet communications protocols. Immediately apparent is an idea of scale that follows each aspect of an emotional communication from birth of ideas and emotions within individuals at the neural level that are communicated through expressions, to the wider reaching effects that these communications have on social relationships, and even society.

This adaption of network layering helps me conceive of how every emotional communication event “hits” on every level. In the education of children, for instance, happy emotions “hit” their surrounding world through positively constructive activities because they spring forth from healthy neurons. It is entirely misleading to think of any empathic event in isolation. Empathy is what the world needs more of, and on a worldly scale, empathy is the most profoundly human concept.

Act Locally

Applying the OSI Model, or at least incorporating its framework within priority schema or decision-making frameworks, may help people visually place various physical (or metaphysical) needs in perspective on actual computing networks. For example, imagine “tuning” the data link layer that connects your small farm to the needs of a supporting CSA group in town. Traversing up and down the needs pyramid and the OSI layers offers some interesting solutions.

Example: Local food systems