The Necessity for a 4 Function Model

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    • Type: TiNe
    • Development: l--l
    • Attitude: Adaptive

    Cognitive Type has remained a 4-function model since its inception, and is still a 4-function model now. Even after years of opportunity to the see the opposite manifest, the evidence still compels me to believe there is a 4-energetic apparatus native to the psyche, not an 8-energetic apparatus. This thread is a discussion on why cognitive type is a four-function model, and why an 8 function model is incompatible with the CTA.
    I believe the psyche does not have redundancies in how it computes information, anymore than we have two hearts or three hands. The psyche possesses one cognitive architecture with the capacity and necessity to account for the four basic object types, and by it accounting for existence, definition, time and causality. This is done by one J System and one P System. I don't think the psyche has two J systems. I think the body needs only one J system or P system for proper biological operation.

    A Necessary Quaternal Structure

    So far, two variants of the J and P system have been studied (L/D and V/M respectively). However, even if there was a third P or J system variant in existence within the human population, this third system would be a rendition of the base P/J system architecture, rather than a duplicated CTA in the mind. It would still only have one CTA, with one Je Ji Pe Pi process. But these Je Ji Pe Pi processes would not be the ones we know of already.
    To illustrate how a hypothetical third variant would work, and how it would still follow a quaternal structure, I'd like to borrow an analogy from the blood type system.

    ^ The ABO system models itself using diagrams like this. What we see here are antigens (the little shapes that are either "A", "B", "R", or "h") attached to the main cell body. A person with a B+ blood type has the antigens called B and "+" attached to the red blood cells. A person never has two blood types, but only one blood type composed of one kind of blood that has all the antigens attached to it.
    Although the analogy is not perfect, and the dynamics of the immune system have other caveats/exceptions to them-- this is roughly how the CTA also works. The N/S/T/F are analogous to the antigens above, which attach themselves either to Je Ji Pe Pi, while always retaining one CTA with four spokes. I would like to borrow the style of this illustration to aim to explain how I see the CTA and its variants in the psyche. Below we see the Alpha and Gamma hierarchies, depicted as spokes with nodes at the tips.

    Much like the ABO system above, we can picture the CTA of the Alpha as one where the nodes of F/N/T/S are attached at particular places along the J System and J System. These nodes are the attributes, which are not standalone functions but little aspects of functions that are attached to the main four energetics. The four energetics carry all the heavy machinery while the nodes are modifiers.
    As you can see, the nodes are attached in different places. The Alpha has the S node attached to Pi, and the Gamma has the S node attached to Pe, and so on. The difference placements of these nodes is what causes the four quadrants: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta.
    A Hypothetical Arrangement:
    Now, given the theoretical framing above, we can see what would happen if, for some biological reason, we had the possibility of combining more than one node in the same energetic without psychological dysfunction.

    ^ What this would give rise to is a structure like the above. In this diagram we see that the Pi energetic has both an N node and an S node, and so on for the others. However, it would still not be appropriate to call this an "8 function" model. Instead, it would remain a 4-function model and what we would see here is a third variant of the J System and P System. Just like there is A type blood, B type blood, and AB type blood -- this third variant of the J System would be neither D or L, but we might call it "K." And the K System would have F and T nodes on both poles of the J System axis. And yet, it would still only have 4 energetic functions because it would have one set of machinery to create the four object types. The entirety of CTA would not be duplicated. So instead, we might think of this type as having four functions called: SNe, SNi, FTe, FTi, but we might better think of these as something like K-, K+, Z-, Z+.

    Zeta is Non-Functional / Impossible.

    Having said that, I believe the Zeta quadrant is not possible. If it does happen at times, I would suspect it to lead to neurological dysfunctions in processing. Natural systems organize themselves deliberately in order to achieve tasks. The heart pumps blood in one direction per vein, not in both. If the heart pumped blood in both directions at the same time, it would cease to function properly. Likewise, the capacity to quantize objects as literalities (S) at one level and have the opposite pole weave them together as associations (N) is a symmetry that allows for information to model the world correctly. The psyche works like an assembly line and functions pass information to one another on order to complete higher-order tasks.
    Computationally, it would be nonsensical for Pe to both quantize (S) and associate (N) variables at the same time. If they are associated (N) then they are not quantized (S). Likewise, if Je treats an object as biotic, it cannot simultaneously treat it as abiotic. No added efficiency is gained from this, anymore than there is by trying to walk both left and right at the same time. Instead there is a loss of efficiency, or no functionality at all.

    The Unresolved Problem of the Unavailable Functions?

    Having said this, many theorists coming from other models (MBTI/JCF/Socionics) have speculated about an 8 function models. There is an attractiveness to the idea of an 8 function model, in that it answers an intuition many people feel, that they use functions like Fi at times and then Fe at times. While this may be sensible in the model they are using, it's nonsensical in the context of the CTA for the aforementioned paradoxes.
    Nonetheless, it does leave an unresolved matter of why it is that individuals feel very close to using "something" that resembles both Fi and Fe (etc) and what could this be driven by. The solution to this problem is a deeper understanding of how computation works at very small scales to produce macro-effects that imitate the operations of other processes, although not quite.
    Moving CT toward a computational direction allows for this subtlety to be more appropriately modeled. As a function axis such as Ti+Fe cycles with itself thousands of times in seconds, it is inevitable that it will produce net effects similar in form to those of "I+F" and "E+T." The challenge, however, comes in describing precisely how these effects are different from the possession of the actual function axes that are unavailable. This problem is currently being addressed through the introduction of compound functions.
    Visit this thread for more details:

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