I've been continuing to use this technique of giving voices to individual subagents, and I've still been finding it extremely useful.
And there are some new subagents to add to the list:
DP: Dark Peer, the agent that's in charge of anything that feels too dark for any of the other agents to say. This includes lots of self-criticism, and criticism of others. If there's something that want to say, but are afraid that saying it would be too rude, and we're talking to someone who already knows about our subagents, then DP will go ahead and say what he wanted to say. We were surprised to find that this subagent actually enjoys getting angry, and writing angry rants. This subagent is also in charge of reporting "negative" feelings, while HP is in charge of reporting "positive" feelings. This agent uses the avatar of a dark, shadowy, genderless, anthropomorphic rabbit.
Recently HP merged with CP, and they share the pink bunny avatar, and they use the name HP. And PP merged with SP, and they share the gray bunny avatar, and they use the name PP.
These three bunny avatars are now our main voices. Most of our internal conversations are between these three voices, with other voices joining in when they have something specific to say.
Some other subagents that were added recently were:
ORG: Obscure Reference Generator: for whenever an obscure reference pops into our head that seems vaguely on-topic, but all of the other subagents are too embarrassed to mention it. This voice just reports the quote or whatever it is that popped into our head.
SoU: Sense of Urgency. The voice that's constantly telling me that whatever I'm working on at the moment urgently needs to be finished as soon as possible. Or if I'm not doing anything important, it's constantly telling me that I should be doing something important. Thinking about existential risks, and our responsibility to do something about them, seems to have put SoU permanently into full-panic mode. This module is causing us lots of trouble, and we're still trying to figure out how to resolve these issues.
RoM: Routine Module. The voice that's constantly telling us to keep following the usual routines, and that gets really nervous whenever we break one of the usual routines. This module is causing us lots of trouble, and we're still trying to figure out how to resolve these issues.
AM: Altruist Module. I should mention that I was an Altruist, before I became a Utilitarian. And so now I have a module in my brain that's constantly looking for opportunities to help others at our expense, without bothering to calculate how much help at how much expense. And it pushes really hard for us to act on these opportunities. It also fights really hard to prevent us from ever doing anything that would harm or annoy or inconvenience anyone in any way, even in situations where it's obvious that inconveniencing the other person is necessary or worthwhile. And this module is older and stronger than UM, the Utilitarian Module. It's often causing lots of trouble, and we're still trying to figure out how to resolve these issues.
EG: Excuse Generator. It gets activated so often that we decided to give it its own name and voice. It's often causing lots of trouble, actively trying to prevent us from updating on new information.
And sometimes a random thought needs to be given a voice, and we don't know what subagent that thought is coming from, and so we assign the label "?P" to that thought.
And don't forget the subagent that likes finding, making, and naming other subagents.
Sequence index: Living Luminously
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Pretending to be multiple agents is a useful way to represent your psychology and uncover hidden complexities.
You may find your understanding of this post significantly improved if you read the sixth story from Seven Shiny Stories.
When grappling with the complex web of traits and patterns that is you, you are reasonably likely to find yourself less than completely uniform. You might have several competing perspectives, possess the ability to code-switch between different styles of thought, or even believe outright contradictions. It's bound to make it harder to think about yourself when you find this kind of convolution.
Unfortunately, we don't have the vocabulary or even the mental architecture to easily think of or describe ourselves (nor other people) as containing such multitudes. The closest we come in typical conversation more resembles descriptions of superficial, vague ambivalence ("I'm sorta happy about it, but kind of sad at the same time! Weird!") than the sort of deep-level muddle and conflict that can occupy a brain. The models of the human psyche that have come closest to approximating this mess are what I call "multi-agent models". (Note: I have no idea how what I am about to describe interacts with actual psychiatric conditions involving multiple personalities, voices in one's head, or other potentially similar-sounding phenomena. I describe multi-agent models as employed by psychiatrically singular persons.)
Multi-agent models have been around for a long time: in Plato's Republic, he talks about appetite (itself imperfectly self-consistent), spirit, and reason, forming a tripartite soul. He discusses their functions as though each has its own agency and could perceive, desire, plan, and act given the chance (plus the possibility of one forcing down the other two to rule the soul unopposed). Not too far off in structure is the Freudian id/superego/ego model. The notion of the multi-agent self even appears in fiction (warning: TV Tropes). It appears to be a surprisingly prevalent and natural method for conceptualizing the complicated mind of the average human being. Of course, talking about it as something to do rather than as a way to push your psychological theories or your notion of the ideal city structure or a dramatization of a moral conflict makes you sound like an insane person. Bear with me - I have data on the usefulness of the practice from more than one outside source.
There is no reason to limit yourself to traditional multi-agent models endorsed by dead philosophers, psychologists, or cartoonists if you find you break down more naturally along some other arrangement. You can have two of you, or five, or twelve. (More than you can keep track of and differentiate is not a recommended strategy - if you're very tempted to go with this many it may be a sign of something unhealthful going on. If a group of them form a reliable coalition it may be best to fold them back into each other and call them one sub-agent, not several.) Stick with a core ensemble or encourage brief cameos of peripheral aspects. Name them descriptively or after structures of the brain or for the colors of the rainbow, as long as you can tell them apart. Talk to yourselves aloud or in writing, or just think through the interaction if you think you'll get enough out of it that way. Some examples of things that could get their own sub-agents include:
By priors picked up from descriptions of various people trying this, you're reasonably likely to identify one of your sub-agents as "you". In fact, one sub-agent may be solely identified as "you" - it's very hard to shake the monolithic observer experience. This is fine, especially if the "you" sub-agent is the one that endorses or repudiates, but don't let the endorsement and repudiation get out of hand during multi-agent exercises. You have to deal with all of your sub-agents, not just the one(s) you like best, and sub-agents have been known to exhibit manipulative and even vengeful behaviors once given voice - i.e. if you represent your desire for cake as a sub-agent, and you have been thwarting your desire for cake for years, you might find that Desire For Cake is pissed off at Self-Restraint and says mean things thereunto. It will not placate Desire For Cake for you to throw in endorsement behind Self-Restraint while Desire For Cake is just trying to talk to you about your desperate yen for tiramisu. Until and unless you understand Desire For Cake well enough to surgically remove it, you need to work with it. Opposing it directly and with normative censure will be likely to make it angry and more devious in causing you to eat cake.
A few miscellaneous notes on sub-agents:
Your sub-agents may surprise you far more than you expect to be surprised by... well... yourself, which is part of what makes this exercise so useful. If you consciously steer the entire dialogue you will not get as much out of it - then you're just writing self-insert fanfiction about the workings of your brain, not actually learning about it.
Not all of your sub-agents will be "interested" in every problem, and therefore won't have much of relevance to say at all times. (Desire For Cake probably couldn't care less how you act on your date next week until it's time to order dessert.)
Your sub-agents should not outright lie to each other ("should" in the predictive, not normative, sense - let me know if it turns out yours do), but they may threaten, negotiate, hide, and be genuinely ignorant about themselves.
Your sub-agents may not all communicate effectively. Having a translation sub-agent handy could be useful, if they are having trouble interpreting each other.
(Post your ensemble of subagencies in the comments, to inspire others! Write dialogues between them!)