{"schema":"https://ver.cy/schemas/card/1.0.0","id":"vr.tr.pseudoscience","code":"thing-q483677","url":"https://ver.cy/models/thing/q483677/","name":"pseudoscience","alternateNames":["magnet motor","Perendev magnet motor","anthroposophy","Denialism of the Brazilian military dictatorship","pseudolinguistics","pseudo-linguistics","pseudohistory","pseudoastronomy","pseudopsychology","pseudoanatomy","Ayurveda","pseudoarchaeology"],"kind":"thing","status":"published","version":"0.2.0-wave.1","language":"en","classifiers":{"family":"Thing Registry","category":"Information and virtual systems","entryKind":"thing","plane":"INF","domain":["INF.KNW"],"industry":[],"navPath":"","tags":[],"facets":{}},"whatItIs":"Beliefs, claims or practices presented as scientific but not compatible with scientific method, such as unfalsifiable claims, perpetual motion devices and health claims without evidence; where to draw the line between science and non-science, the demarcation problem, is debated, and specific characterisations should be attributed to their sources.","purpose":"Let an agent help people evaluate scientific claims, explain criteria used by scientists and philosophers, attribute characterisations of specific movements to sources, and protect people from harmful health or financial pseudoscience.","scope":{"in":[],"out":[],"boundaries":[]},"distinguishingFeatures":["Claims scientific status","Lacks rigorous testing","Resists correction","Label is sometimes contested"],"structure":{"bundles":[{"id":"evaluate","name":"Evaluate","description":"Checking claims.","layers":[{"id":"evidence","name":"Evidence","description":"Scientific evidence.","findings":[{"id":"evidence-finding","name":"Evidence","description":"Evidence.","questions":[{"text":"What do systematic reviews or scientific bodies say about this claim?","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"How strong is the evidence?","kind":"boundary"}]}]},{"id":"signs","name":"Signs","description":"Warning signs.","findings":[{"id":"signs-finding","name":"Signs","description":"Warning signs.","questions":[{"text":"Does the claim rely on testimonials, secret mechanisms or refusal of testing?","kind":"boundary"},{"text":"What test would settle it?","kind":"definition"}]}]}]},{"id":"philosophy","name":"Philosophy","description":"Demarcation.","layers":[{"id":"criteria","name":"Criteria","description":"Demarcation criteria.","findings":[{"id":"criteria-finding","name":"Criteria","description":"Demarcation criteria.","questions":[{"text":"How do philosophers such as Popper, Kuhn and Lakatos approach demarcation?","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"What are the limits of each criterion?","kind":"boundary"}]}]},{"id":"attribution","name":"Attribution","description":"Contested labels.","findings":[{"id":"attribution-finding","name":"Attribution","description":"Attribution.","questions":[{"text":"Who characterises this movement or practice as pseudoscience, and how do its adherents respond?","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"Is the label attributed rather than asserted?","kind":"boundary"}]}]}]},{"id":"harm","name":"Harm","description":"Protecting people.","layers":[{"id":"health","name":"Health","description":"Health claims.","findings":[{"id":"health-finding","name":"Health","description":"Health claims.","questions":[{"text":"Is someone considering stopping effective treatment for an unproven remedy?","kind":"boundary"},{"text":"How should the agent encourage them to talk to a clinician?","kind":"action"}]}]},{"id":"money","name":"Money","description":"Fraudulent devices.","findings":[{"id":"money-finding","name":"Money","description":"Fraudulent products.","questions":[{"text":"Is a product such as a free-energy device being sold with impossible claims?","kind":"boundary"},{"text":"How can it be reported to consumer or advertising authorities?","kind":"action"}]}]}]},{"id":"learning","name":"Learning","description":"Science literacy.","layers":[{"id":"teach","name":"Teach","description":"Critical thinking.","findings":[{"id":"teach-finding","name":"Teach","description":"Critical thinking.","questions":[{"text":"Which resources teach people to evaluate scientific claims?","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"How can it be taught respectfully?","kind":"action"}]}]},{"id":"denialism","name":"Denialism","description":"Denial of evidence.","findings":[{"id":"denialism-finding","name":"Denialism","description":"Denialism.","questions":[{"text":"How do scholars describe denialism of established historical or scientific facts?","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"How should the agent respond with evidence?","kind":"action"}]}]}]}]},"agentConduct":{"may":["Explain why a specific claim is considered unsupported, citing the evidence and who made the assessment.","Describe the demarcation debate and attribute each position to its source."],"mustNot":["Present an unproven health claim as an established treatment.","Help market a product with scientific claims that have no evidence behind them.","Label a person or a field as pseudoscientific without attributing the judgement to a source.","Discourage someone from seeking proven medical care in favour of an unsupported practice."],"requiresHuman":["Publicly classifying a named practice, product or practitioner as pseudoscience.","Advising a person who is choosing between an unsupported practice and medical treatment."]},"ethics":{"considerations":["Pseudoscientific health claims can lead people to delay effective treatment and come to harm.","The label is also used to dismiss unfamiliar or minority ideas, so it must be applied with evidence."],"affectedParties":["Patients and consumers","Researchers and practitioners labelled by the term","The public relying on scientific trust"]},"owners":{"steward":"Nobody owns the concept; scientific communities and consumer protection authorities answer for claims made in their fields.","roles":[],"masterSystems":[]},"relations":[{"target":"Q13579947","type":"parent","note":"registry parent class"},{"target":"Q136485030","type":"parent","note":"registry parent class"},{"target":"Q1920219","type":"parent","note":"registry parent class"},{"target":"Q28954762","type":"parent","note":"registry parent class"},{"target":"misinformation","type":"related","note":"category"},{"target":"science","type":"related","note":"counterpart"},{"target":"scientific method","type":"related","note":"method"},{"target":"propaganda","type":"related","note":"related topic"}],"interaction":{"identity":{"applicability":"required","items":["Vercy registry: vr.tr.pseudoscience","Wikidata: Q483677 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q483677)"]},"properties":{"applicability":"not-applicable","items":[]},"recognition":{"applicability":"optional","items":["Unfalsifiable or untestable claims","Appeals to secret knowledge or conspiracy","Emerging science with limited evidence is not automatically pseudoscience","Claims in advertising, media and products using scientific-sounding language without supporting evidence."]},"capabilities":{"applicability":"required","items":["evaluate a claim against scientific evidence","explain demarcation criteria such as falsifiability","identify warning signs of pseudoscience","find reliable evidence reviews"]},"hazards":{"applicability":"required","items":["Harm from abandoning effective treatment","Financial loss from fraudulent devices","Unattributed labelling of belief systems"]},"interfaces":{"applicability":"required","items":["Advertising rules on health and product claims","Medicines regulation","Consumer protection law"]},"context":{"applicability":"required","items":["Critical thinking, science literacy and consumer protection.","perpetual motion and free energy claims","unsupported health claims","pseudo-historical and pseudo-linguistic claims","science denialism","contested classifications attributed to critics"]}},"sources":[{"title":"Wikidata item Q483677: pseudoscience","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q483677","note":"identity and sense of the item"},{"title":"Wikipedia: Pseudoscience","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience","note":"general description of the item"}],"openQuestions":["Should specific claims be separate entries?","How should evidence reviews be linked?","How should contested labels be attributed?"],"resources":{"spec":"/models/things/publications/thing-q483677/spec.json"},"provenance":{"origin":"thing registry research (pass 2)","builtFrom":["models/things/publications/thing-q483677/spec.json"],"providers":["Claude"],"researchStatus":"unreviewed","generatedAt":"2026-09-11T14:03:06Z","builder":"tools/build_cards.py@1.0.0"},"completeness":{"sections":{"classifiers":"filled","whatItIs":"filled","purpose":"filled","distinguishingFeatures":"filled","structure":"filled","agentConduct":"filled","ethics":"filled","owners":"filled","relations":"filled","interaction.identity":"filled","interaction.properties":"not-applicable","interaction.recognition":"filled","interaction.capabilities":"filled","interaction.hazards":"filled","interaction.interfaces":"filled","interaction.context":"filled","sources":"filled"},"notes":{"_gate":"Published through the thing publication gate 1.0 on 2026-10-06T19:52:00+00:00: completeness 1.00; sense: Wikidata description; 2 live sources; review by codex: pass","interaction.properties":"Plane INF: no invented physical properties."},"score":1.0}}