"Magic" Triangles and
the Essential Time Factor
Time is a "magic" factor strongly influencing
performance in Cognitive Engineering (see: Tognazzini 1993). Its effects are
much less well researched than visual, and spatial factors.
The military represents that organized social
body of humanity which has carried on in an unparalleled manner the traditions
of fine-honed time organization and coordination from the earliest
beginnings of hunt and warfare down to the age of intercontinental ballistic
missiles. As time factors are more of a secret ingredient to victory, their
importance has tended to be handled low-key: The less was known about them, the
better for the party relying on them.
The highest-ever perfection of
application of time factors is in the Asian Martial Arts
techniques which rely on embedding their workings in the subconcious
neuronal control levels so that they can be applied below the awareness
threshold (the cogent moment) of the opponent. Here the "magic" can be seen at
work, and the enormous attraction of these arts testifies its
effect.
