synectics

name	synectics
description	Synectics Campaign — systematic use of analogy and metaphor for breakthrough associations via Gordon's 4 analogy types and excursion method.
execution	campaign
used-by	creative-ideation

Synectics

Systematic use of analogy and metaphor for breakthrough associations via Gordon's 4 analogy types and excursion method.

Strategy Routing

Strategy	Signal Keywords
direct-analogy	analogy, parallel, similar system, nature, biomimicry, structural similarity
personal-analogy	empathy, become, identify with, first-person, feel like, embody
symbolic-analogy	oxymoron, compressed conflict, poetic image, paradox, essence
fantasy-analogy	wish, ideal, magic, ignore constraints, if only, perfect world
excursion-method	excursion, departure, unrelated domain, force-fit, full process

Manifest

Strategies

Strategy	Description
direct-analogy	Find structurally similar systems in nature/technology/society
personal-analogy	Empathic identification — become the system/component
symbolic-analogy	Compress core contradiction into poetic imagery/oxymoron
fantasy-analogy	Wish-fulfillment thinking — ignore physical laws for ideal solution
excursion-method	Full 8-stage Gordon-Prince excursion process

Tactics

Tactic	Description
analogy-extraction	Extract structural analogies from cross-domain sources (shared)
excursion-orchestration	Orchestrate departure → force-fit → springboard sequence
compressed-conflict	Generate oxymorons from contradictions and extract idea directions

SOPs

SOP	Description
direct-analogy-generation	Find direct analogies from nature/tech/society
personal-identification	First-person empathic identification with system
symbolic-compression	Compress contradiction into 2-3 word oxymoron
fantasy-wish	Unconstrained wish-fulfillment ideation
excursion-departure	Leave problem, explore unrelated domain
force-fit	Force-fit excursion discoveries back to problem
analogy-chain	Chain analogies to deeper levels (3-5 layers)
springboard-launch	Convert analogy insights into concrete solutions
synectics-synthesis	Synthesize all synectics outputs

Budget Table

Strategy	web-search	web-research	paper-overview	paper-search	paper-research
direct-analogy	25	8	25	15	5
personal-analogy	15	5	15	10	3
symbolic-analogy	15	5	15	10	3
fantasy-analogy	15	5	15	10	3
excursion-method	30	10	25	15	8

MCP Tools

Tool	Server	Purpose
brave_web_search	brave-search	General web search for analogies and examples
brave_llm_context	brave-search	Deep content extraction from web pages
apify/rag-web-browser	apify	Full page scraping for detailed content
get_paper_content	alphaxiv	Read academic paper content
discover_papers	alphaxiv	Find relevant research papers
relevanceSearch	semantic-scholar	Search academic literature
paper	semantic-scholar	Get paper details
citations	semantic-scholar	Trace citation networks

Context Management

• Each strategy tracks its own budget via State Ledger
• Strategies MUST NOT exceed allocated budget
• Campaign monitors cumulative spend across all strategies
• If a strategy exhausts budget before meeting yield, escalate to campaign level for reallocation
• Prefer paper-overview over paper-research for initial exploration (lower cost)

Available Tactics

Tactic	Role
analogy-extraction	Extract structural analogies from cross-domain sources (shared)
excursion-orchestration	Orchestrate departure → force-fit → springboard
compressed-conflict	Generate oxymorons and extract idea directions

Available SOPs

SOP	Role
direct-analogy-generation	Find direct analogies
personal-identification	Empathic identification
symbolic-compression	Oxymoron compression
fantasy-wish	Wish-fulfillment ideation
excursion-departure	Domain departure
force-fit	Force-fit back to problem
analogy-chain	Deepen analogies in layers
springboard-launch	Convert insights to solutions
synectics-synthesis	Final synthesis