[Si] Si as "conservative" (semantics + misconceptions)

[Thalassa]

I like the preserve thing. But I like best the suggestion that Si leads you to keep what is "best". In other words, Si doesn't like to waste effort relearning what is already learned.

Without Si, no progress is possible. For whatever is learned will be lost leading to future generations having to relearn it all over again.

I think of Si as the person that decides to create a manual, an encyclopedia, a museum, or even just a book...or a simple song or poem containing wisdom! He may not have come up with the knowledge, idea, technique in question, but he realizes that now that it is discovered, learned, created, there is no reason that any one else henceforth should start from ground zero or the absolute beginning. It seems very rational, actually. So it makes sure these are passed on or preserved in some way.

This way, 2 centuries from now, the seedling idea is added to by succeeding generations who find the knowledge preserved by Si, test it or add to it or change it, and then it is preserved in the new form by other Si's so that a whole mountain of knowledge is the result after a few lifetimes.

All 8 functions have a core purpose in furthering the human species. For Si, that purpose seems to be to retain as best as possible all that is deemed good and useful so that effort may be better focused elsewhere besides what is already known. Si really shows the species as a unit, because what is learned by one person can, through Si, become the property of the family, community, society, eventually the whole species. Without Si, everyone would have to be their own damned Newton, Edison and what-not to better their lives. But with Si, one Newton leads eventually to the whole race of humans benefiting greatly.

Si is AWEsome!!!!

Yes, I think that's why there are so many SJs. In physics it's referred to as chaos theory, that past a certain point, change becomes destructive chaos. The purpose of Si would definitely be keeping the structure in tact so humans did not have to keep relearning the same information.

Apparently SFP types are also predicted to be good in history, as a school subject, but Si seems like it would be the function that does the actual building. There becomes a problem in society not when people depart from history or the past, but when people discard the lessons learned.

One of the inadvertent consequences of moving away from Abrahamic religions is that people actually forgot to do things like let land lay fallow, to plant according to a structure that actually benefits mankind in the long run. Of course the Abrahamic traditions aren't the only source of this information, but once the Modern Era began, and especially after WWII when people thought the human potential was actually limitless, they began farming practices that have essentially destroyed the quality of the earth, just in a half a century. So scientists observe now, from experience, what has to be done to fix the horror.

The problem being though that doing this requires even more change, and "the new Si" in some cases wants to cling irrationally to destructive practices. I don't think the human mind works in optimal order when too removed from the natural world.

 

[Entp/infjGal]

Here are certain things I used to think belong to other functions but that I now think come from Si.

I used to think of FE as the teacher in me, I now think that teacher is actually none other than Si. It is Si that feels a certain need or urgency or pleasure in handing on information it deems important, simply for its own sake, for no immediate utility...the information is its own worth.

I used to think intuition was responsible for my need to acquire information (curiosity): I now think it is SI that, again, values knowledge for its own sake, and so collects it without any particular utility in mind. It is thus a very impractical function too, just like intuition. No wonder I loved (still love) learning when it's not for school! It is my Si gathering information.

It seems at the heart of Si is an implicit faith that somewhere down the line, someone will make use of the information it gathers...or rather, that information/knowledge, is useful for its own sake. This is always associated with intuition but I genuinely think it is an Si characteristic.

Intuition seems to be more about creating new associations, not simply learning/absorbing them. Learning for its sake is a form of curiosity that belongs as much to Si as to any other "curious" function. So, just like me, I bet there's lots of curious SFJs out there who figure they can't prefer Si simply because they are insatiably curious individuals. We love the information. We don't really care so much for its practical utility if our interest is drawn to learn the information.

 

[Eric B]

I think the purpose of learning new associations is to create them. Ne and Si work in tandem as "Inquiring Awareness", so there's always a comparison to be made, from patterns stored in memory. When Si is out front, it is focused on the tangible world, like Se, and only wants to create an internal filter to be familiar with how things work. New associations migh throw a monkey wrench into things, so they prefer to focuson what's known.
I don't think it's really knowledge for its own sake. That sounds more like Ti (Which both NTP's and SFJ's have in the primary stack, and provides a logical "framework" to assess "knowledge"). Si, like other perception functions, is considered "irrational", as it's about taking in whatever information comes along (which we generally can't control. Really "creating" associations would be more of a judgment function anyway; Ne simply discovers whatever connection pattern the object implies).

Now, an ESFJ with a developed tertiary will have more of a curiosity, when they're ready, but at other times, will still prefer the familiar.
So I still think you might be ENTP (as I said, I think on my blog).

 

[Entp/infjGal]

I think the purpose of learning new associations is to create them. Ne and Si work in tandem as "Inquiring Awareness", so there's always a comparison to be made, from patterns stored in memory. When Si is out front, it is focused on the tangible world, like Se, and only wants to create an internal filter to be familiar with how things work. New associations migh throw a monkey wrench into things, so they prefer to focuson what's known.
I don't think it's really knowledge for its own sake. That sounds more like Ti (Which both NTP's and SFJ's have in the primary stack, and provides a logical "framework" to assess "knowledge"). Si, like other perception functions, is considered "irrational", as it's about taking in whatever information comes along (which we generally can't control. Really "creating" associations would be more of a judgment function anyway; Ne simply discovers whatever connection pattern the object implies).

Now, an ESFJ with a developed tertiary will have more of a curiosity, when they're ready, but at other times, will still prefer the familiar.
So I still think you might be ENTP (as I said, I think on my blog).

Oh wow! I am rethinking my type again, and yes ENTP is back on the table. Don't know why that makes me both excited and sad, but it does.

Well, for sure curiosity is one of the constants of my life, I really don't think it's possible for me to not be curious. I can't imagine a state when I wasn't pursuing something in my mind, a book, the Internet. I just don't think I can switch it off. I think I do it even while I sleep sometimes.

 

[Eric B]

Well, for sure curiosity is one of the constants of my life, I really don't think it's possible for me to not be curious. I can't imagine a state when I wasn't pursuing something in my mind, a book, the Internet. I just don't think I can switch it off. I think I do it even while I sleep sometimes.

Yea, this sounds like Ne as preferred function, and likely even dominant ego view.
(Don't know why that would make you sad. Was it that the idea of being a Feeling type felt nice or something?)