Variants¶

A variant is a domain-specific reading of Split-Domain Cognition, produced by running the seven questions and reviewed against the four validation tests.

Variants move through explicit states: Proposed → Noted → Under Review → Canonical → Archived. Each state is visible below. External projects may adopt a variant in any state; the adoption declaration records which state was adopted.

Canonical variants — read in full¶

Six variants have been authored and reviewed against the four tests. Each is published below with the full text at a stable URL of the form /variants/{slug}/v1/. Click the variant name to read it in full.

Canonical · v1.0

Animal rights and veganism

Welfare description and rights-grounded verdict held structurally apart. Grounded in worth-is-not-hierarchical.

Read in full Canonical · v1.0

Curation

Curatorial description and inclusion-exclusion decision held apart. Museum of Vestigial Desire (2012–2021) as nine-year worked example.

Read in full Canonical · v1.0

User research in design

Ethnographic description and design-evaluation verdict held apart. Teaching across NID / IIT GN / CEPT / Srishti / Anant.

Read in full Canonical · v1.0

Urban planning and EIA

Site description and policy verdict held apart. CEPT teaching history; Ahmedabad context; Scott / Guha / Lefebvre / Jacobs.

Read in full Canonical · v1.0

Psychiatric diagnosis and the DSM

Clinical observation and DSM categorisation held apart. Maté archive; worth-is-not-hierarchical extended inward; Laing / Foucault.

Read in full Canonical · v1.0

Data work in India

Industry description and labour-rights judgement held apart. Karya adjacency; Fairwork India framework; Polanyi.

Read in full

Each variant carries its own metadata, summary, and the seven-question derivation walked out. Each ends with a link back to this catalogue and instructions for how to follow it (Reference or Alignment).

Noted variants¶

Argument sketched; full variant not yet drafted. External authors who work in these domains are invited to contribute.

Variant	Why noted rather than proposed
Vocabulary of innovation	Hype Studies teaching at Anant is the standing infrastructure; Koher's own brand refusals already instantiate the position; full variant awaits a writing venue or course cycle.

Proposed variants¶

Named; not yet developed. An external author with stake in one of these domains can draft it using the derivation protocol.

Variant	Notes on stake / associated work
Editorial work	No landing yet.
Public art	The Murmur Engine; FICA submission.
Hiring / admissions	Intellectual variant only.
Research evaluation (peer review)	Intellectual variant only.
The practice itself (Level 1 / Level 2)	Partially drafted in level-1-living-practice.md in the repository.
Medical diagnosis and clinical consultation	Intellectual (post-Maté); philosophical stake, not clinical.
News journalism and reporting	Hype Studies teaching at Anant.
AI alignment / safety evaluation	Koher's XAI / legibility work is already this variant in practice.
Content moderation at platform scale	Technology ethics teaching; AI governance.
Intelligence analysis and threat assessment	See project-iran-war-ai-sycophancy-event.
Film and book criticism	Artistic practice; hype-studies pedagogy; curatorial lineage.
Therapy and counselling traditions	Maté archive; sibling of the psychiatric-diagnosis variant.

Archived variants¶

Withdrawn or superseded. URLs remain live.

Variant	Archived	Reason
Design studio pedagogy	16 April 2026	Absorbed into user-research-in-design and the studio-pedagogy material in `principle-not-pattern`.

How to contribute a variant¶

Read SDC in brief, Preamble, and the derivation protocol.
Answer the seven questions for your domain. Prose is fine; notes are fine at first.
Draft the variant in the structure given in the protocol.
Submit via email to me@prayas.in with subject line SDC variant submission: {slug}. Include the draft, a short author note, and a sentence about your stake in the domain.
The review applies the four tests in writing. You will receive the review record, regardless of outcome.
If admitted, the variant is published with a stable URL, a version number, and a state marker.

Self-serve submission is deferred until external variants begin to accumulate. See governance for the one-person-phase declaration and the transition criterion.