Theory, comparison, and the psyche framework
The id operates pre-linguistically. It pattern-matches. It hallucinates freely because it has no conscience to constrain it. The id is the fastest, the most embodied, and the most prone to error.
The ego mediates. It speaks. It can explain the id's impulses in words. It can suppress an impulse or act on it. The ego is slow, articulable, and prone to over-thinking.
The superego decides. Not "what do I feel?" (id), not "what can I say?" (ego), but "what should I do?" The superego is constrained by principles, by consequences, by schemas of behavior.
| Model | Psyche role | Function |
|---|---|---|
| JEPA | Id | Embodied prediction; gestalt recognition |
| LLM | Ego | Verbal analysis; narrative generation |
| JEV | Superego | Calibrated decision; schema enforcement |
JEPA over many iterations can correlate the real distance to the time delay. But without JEV, JEPA's id is hallucination-prone: it pattern-matches without checking. JEV gives the superego to the id.
JEV abandons autoregressive token generation. Instead, it enumerates all possible outputs in advance and computes a probability for each in a single forward pass. The output space is constrained to:
Reinforcement Learning for Calibrated Decisions (RLCD). The reward signal is the calibration accuracy: high confidence should mean high accuracy. Unlike RLHF (preference) or RLVR (verifiable correctness), RLCD optimizes for epistemic honesty.
| Latency p50 | 150ms |
| Latency p99 | 800ms |
| Price (input) | $0.042/MTok |
| Price (output) | Free |
| Throughput | 250k tok/s, 1200 req/min |
| Context | 64k tokens |
JEV's output price is free because there is no decode loop. The single forward pass produces all candidate outputs simultaneously.
You see the flash of lightning. You hear the thunder N seconds later. The direction is given by the flash. The distance is given by the time delay.
JEPA is the flash. One forward pass through the world model gives you a direction without counting anything.
JEV is the thunder. It comes a moment later. It tells you the calibrated probability that the world is at that distance — in 150ms, in a single call, with a schema you define.
LLM is the verbal report. It tells you what to do about it, in language humans can read.
The calibration window Δ is critical:
If Δ is too small (< 10ms), JEV's confidence reflects noise. If Δ is too large (> 5s), JEV's confidence reflects stale state. The optimal window is 50-200ms in practice.
JEPA over many iterations can correlate the real distance to the time delay. The psyche framework explains why: the id forms an impulse, the superego calibrates it, the ego narrates it. Without all three, the agent is incomplete.
The current unit of information is incompatible across models:
Cross-model composition requires a translation layer. We propose AGREE-MARK as the foundational unit: a temporal event at which all three models independently sign the same proposition.
Where state is the proposition, je/llm/jev are the three witnesses, t is the timestamp, Δ is the calibration window, and σ is the agreement score:
Disagreement (any c < threshold) creates a fork in the witness log. The fork can be resolved by:
Cellular substrates like Quilt treat every BIND as requiring a 3-way agreement. The cell exists iff all three witnesses sign.