So what IS this?

Why would a system like this even exist? What sense does it make? What are the core ideas that lead to a system like this?

Disclaimer!: This section is not meant to be a proof that the system exists any more than the rest of this document. This section is simply conjecture as to what forces could have allowed this system to develop and evolve in the brains of creatures of thousands of years.

Thinking about the problem in the most basic manner, the concept of critical thought and consciousness is a massive process, requiring incredible systems to work together constantly to produce an intelligent organism capable of processing and using impossible amounts of data.

We already know that gathering and processing ALL data equally would be impossible, if for no other reason than the brain is limited. It is a know phenomena that the brain selective keeps certain information and forgets other information because it can not store all information forever. This introduces a class of dilemmas.

How does a brain process this data? How does a brain get data? What kind of data does the brain care about? What kind of data does the brain not care about?

Function theory seeks to answer these questions by breaking up all the possible ways of storing and using data up into smaller, more workable pieces. These pieces are the info elements that were discussed earlier.

From a simple experience or interaction, there are countless observations that can be taken away. For example, if you are out at a garden, you might be interested in how the plants feel, how they smell, what color they are, what their notable features are etc... You could also go the opposite way and instead of focusing on the physical details of individual plants, you could observe the connections, similarities, and dissimilarities of these plants aswell. Why that one has pedals and another one doesn't. Why one flower evolved to be red and another evolved to be blue. Why bugs prefer the plants over there to the ones over here.

In the above example, you can clearly see how not all observations are equal therefore not all observation "styles" are equal. One reveals more about the concrete nature of a specific item and the other reveals more about the connections and patterns between items.

These "styles" are given names, Intuition and Sensing. Intuition (N) is thought to be concerned with the realm of fantasy (or imagination) and Sensing (S) is thought to be concerned with perceptible reality.

This is the idea behind information elements. They are ways to name and discuss the different types of information and decision making criteria that an individual employs. Thus, the different priority people place on all of these different "styles" of thought would drastically change their interests, goals, take a ways from experiences and more. Whats better is that there is some evidence that makes a link between functions and brain regions. If this area is studied more it is possible that we will find some connection between a function and the area of the brain that is active when utilizing that function, implying these could be physical processes in the brain rather than just theoretical ideas to explain complex thought.

It is theorized that an individual possesses each of these functions with varying levels of strength. Thus an individual's personality type is made up by the different combination of these functions.