Let's finish off our B-prioritized systems. Where BCA is a very
commonplace system, however, BAC represents one of the (as far as we
know) purely theoretical thinking styles. That is, we haven't
encountered any cultures which seem to evidence a priority on
concrete particulars, followed by abstract reasoning, and then taking
the emotional/mystical into consideration. With that caveat, allow me
to take a moment to speculate wildly.
Since B, as we mentioned before, is strongly grounded in concrete
reality (the physical world and things we do in it), and tends toward
habituation and past experience for decision-making, we would expect
that a BAC culture (or individual) would show evidence of the same
traditionalism and attention to detail as a BCA culture. The main
difference, however, would be an emphasis on conceptualization over
the emotional/mystical. In cultural terms, this might also mean a
lower prioritization of social and/or religious ties that we see in many BCA cultures,
such as African tribes. Note that this does not mean family or
social bonds are necessarily weak – just that “good” decision
making takes into account tradition first, then analysis, then
emotional, mystical, or social implications. Such a society might
look very traditional in its operation, but have substantial areas of
innovation and development that occur according to socially-ingrained
protocols or procedures. On the other hand, strong social traditions
are often a result of social pressure (motivated by C), which is
weaker in this type of thinking structure. Perhaps a strong state
which sets broad parameters within which individuals can innovate and
conceptualize, but doesn't have a strong relational aspect to it?
That may resemble some fictional dystopia, but most totalitarian
regimes tend to substantially suppress their people, which appears to
result in a “survival mode” BCA mindset.
This style is one of two that Dr. Cook described as mathematically
possible, but non-cultural. That is, the math works out such that the
system could exist, but the structure of human society and human
nature don't really allow it to be the case. On the other hand, it
may just be that we are looking for the wrong cues for this type of
thinking, and there is, in fact, a person or culture that does embody
this kind of thinking. If so, finding such a person or group would be
tremendously helpful in advancing our understanding of human
cognition.
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