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By ArchonAlarion (Jake)
First let us define Si abstractly. In aspectonics, Si is the “external dynamics of fields”. Being a “field” element, this means that Si does not perceive information as separate from the subject. Si is not something “out there”, floating around whether you want it there or not. Si surrounds you or surrounds others and you change Si by changing your viewpoint. Go to one corner of a room and you’ll experience something different than if you were in another corner. It’s not so much what objects are present, but where you are amidst those objects and how the objects are working together as a group.
As an analogy, imagine a table in front of you. The table has a variety of objects on it. You can interact with each knick-knack individually or order
them how you please. Now imagine you are in a dark room and surrounding you is a continuous video screen around the perimeter. The screen is showing you the same table with the same items. However, now the items are inseparable. They exist as part of the screen. Now you have to interact with the objects by using a remote to rewind, fast forward, and change the channel.
That’s sort of what dealing with subjectivity is like. You can’t change the objects directly; you have to change your view of them. However, we are never totally field oriented, and always have an object element ready at our disposal to make changes to the world outside of our subjective views.
As I alluded to, Si is “dynamic”. This means it deals with kinetic energy, as in motion, direction, speed, pace, etc. Si perceives changing subjective states; “How did I view this before? What was this like when I saw it last? How has my view changed? What sort of setting is this? How is this environment changing?”
For Si, I like to imagine being in a pool. The water surrounds you and constantly reminds that you are in a specific environment that acts in a specific way. When you push water with your arm all of the pool is affected because there is a continuum between your actions and everything else in the environment. This fluctuating context is central to understanding Si.
Lastly Si is “external”. External elements deal with what is explicit, demonstrable, direct, tangible, etc. Whereas Ni is concerned with abstract, implicit contexts, Si perceives the changing concrete context. It’s about the tangible effects that objects have on each other within an environment. Like ripples in the pool, each action affects everything else to some degree and changes the arena. With enough actions going off, you’ll be able to see a trend or “flow” which is pointing to an outcome. That’s what Si does; you can “feel” all around you the flow and direction of the tangible world. It’s like standing in the eye of a hurricane, or on a rock in the middle of a stream. You can “sense” the mass of rock and molten lava that is the earth under you. You can “sense” all the people around you, their energy pressing into your body. In a business situation, you can feel areas that lack resources or that are poorly managed. This is not Te, its Si. The business comes to mind as a single, pulsing organism and you can run your hand over it, and in your mind, perceive broken parts, places that are “healthy” and pockets of emptiness where resources must be directed. Te is not as intuitive as this and is not as concerned with the operation as a conglomerate whole as it is with individual workings and tasks. Te is the “object” version of External dynamics and Si is the “subjective” version.
In a strategy games like civilization or Warcraft, I experience Si to a great extent. My fortress/base is like a sprawling animal that reaches out with eager, greedy hands and swallows up whole forests, devours gold mines, and evolves more every minute. I need more footmen, so I increase gold production and in my mind I can feel the lumber gathering organ shrink whilst more tentacles of energy reach out and begin consuming gold via my peons. My army is like an amoeba, spreading across the map, sucking up space and strategic areas, assimilating territory. I can feel the game’s economy fluctuate, noticing more units of a certain kind being produced, so I react to this ripple with a counter ripple. I’m like a man sitting in a tower over the land, pushing and pulling levers, managing the flow of my civilization. I can sense power at my capital and the power decreases in magnification depending on area.
Si has a lot to do with logistics and resource managing. You can sense how one department of an organization is sending out inefficient ripples, that are affecting the rest of the organization. Si helps to regulate the environment for a desired outcome. This outcome could be simple comfort, but efficiency, domination, extrapolation of knowledge, and even just to create a specific environment for whatever purpose is of course possible and in my opinion generally more interesting.
You know the Flood from the Halo series? Do you know the Tyranids from Warhammer 40K? If Si was a monster it would be like that. Always evolving, expanding, consuming, adapting, regulating, and assimilating new concepts to produce new forms.
Jung says about Si,
“Actually he lives in a mythological world, where men, animals, locomotives, houses, rivers, and mountains appear either as benevolent deities or as malevolent demons."
This is very true in my opinion. Using Si feels like you’re extending yourself outwards. Like, that tank is my finger, the cloud is my hair, and the skyscraper is my arm. It feels like you can grab onto the essence of a city, of a forest, of a world, of the universe. All the actions and reactions are blended into a single... creature. It’s difficult to explain. You can feel how everything within a context fits together and moves. When you experience Si it’s like you extend your essence outwards into your surroundings and you become the heart/mind of the environmental flow, so that the waxing and waning, the ebb and flow of all things is at your fingertips.
Basically Si is the most boner thing ever and when you add Fe to it, I ruin my clean pants.
