Multi-AI Checks and Balances: Layer-Appropriate Operation as an Architectural Paradigm — Derived from the Self-as-an-End Psychoanalytic Four-Layer Framework / 多AI协作与制衡架构:基于Self-as-an-End精神分析四层框架的理论推导与工程方案

Description

This paper derives, from the Self-as-an-End (SAE) psychoanalytic four-layer framework (12DD Id / 13DD Ego / 14DD Superego / 15DD Cert), a multi-AI architectural paradigm orthogonal to functional division of labor: layered checks and balances. Four Agents are not four workers assigned to different tasks but four operational modes of the same system — me-without-self (12DD), self-without-purpose (13DD), self-with-purpose (14DD), and self-with-non-dubito (15DD). Inter-layer structural tension is maintained through remainder channels; intra-layer functional division is permitted and orthogonal.

The paper introduces layer-appropriate operation as a missing dimension in current multi-agent architectures, derives the four-Agent design with five remainder channels and typed schemas, specifies object-activation and layer fluidity mechanisms, identifies three system pathologies (fixation, misalignment, pseudo-high-layer covering), produces five non-trivial falsifiable predictions about unlayered architectures, and provides a general engineering implementation plan with runtime enforcement principles.

Chinese is the authoritative version; English is an independent rewrite.

Writing Declaration: This paper was co-drafted with Claude (Anthropic). All intellectual decisions, framework design, and final editorial judgments were made by the author.

Keywords

Self-as-an-End; SAE; multi-AI collaboration; checks and balances; 12DD–15DD; psychoanalysis; object-activation; inter-layer dynamics; agent architecture; alignment; layer-appropriate operation; remainder channels; system pathology

License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Language

Chinese (authoritative) / English (independent rewrite)

Related identifiers

Is supplement to (SAE Psychoanalysis Series):

• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19321143 — SAE Psychoanalysis (I): Id — The Me Without a Self
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19321314 — SAE Psychoanalysis (II): Ego — The Self Without a Purpose
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19321417 — SAE Psychoanalysis (III): Superego — The Self With a Purpose
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19321534 — SAE Psychoanalysis (IV): Cert and Unification

Is supplement to (SAE Foundational Framework):

• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18528813 — Systems, Emergence, and the Conditions of Personhood
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18666645 — Internal Colonization and the Reconstruction of Subjecthood
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18727327 — The Complete Self-as-an-End Framework

Is supplement to (SAE Institutional Theory):

• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19328662 — How Is Institution Possible

Is supplement to (SAE Methodology):

• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18842450 — SAE Methodological Overview: The Chisel-Construct Cycle

Is supplement to (SAE AI Series):

• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19305611 — The Anti-Turing Test: Thermodynamic Falsification of AI Subjectivity

Subjects

Philosophy; Artificial Intelligence; Multi-Agent Systems; Psychoanalysis; Alignment; Agent Architecture

Notes

• Part of the Self-as-an-End (SAE) Applied Series — AI subseries
• Academic website: https://self-as-an-end.net
• Substack: https://hqin.substack.com