goal
Enable an agent to identify an intended state of affairs, assess whether it has been achieved, and determine which goal-directed actions should continue, change, or terminate.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
6 bundles · 11 layers · 16 findings · 26 questions
Intended state and adoption Establishes what is intended and whose commitment makes it a goal.
Outcome meaning
Separates the intended state from activities, methods, and verbal shorthand.
State to be achieved
Record what must become true, for which entities, and within which context.
- What state of affairs is the plan intended to achieve? definition
- Which parts of the stated goal describe the outcome, and which merely prescribe a method? boundary
Adoption and authority
Identifies commitment to the goal and authority over its meaning.
Adopted intention
Record the goal holder, evidence of adoption, and who can authorize a change.
- Who adopted this intended state, and what instruction or decision establishes that adoption? provenance
- Who may change the intended state or withdraw the commitment to pursue it? action
Satisfaction and evidence Makes the distinction between achieving the goal and merely appearing to make progress explicit.
Achievement conditions
Defines the conditions whose fulfillment constitutes achievement.
Completion rule
Record necessary conditions, alternative sufficient conditions, tolerances, and temporal qualifications.
- Which conditions must hold together, and which alternatives would independently count as success? definition
- Must the state occur before a deadline, throughout an interval, or for a minimum duration? measurement
Achievement assessment
Connects satisfaction judgments to observations and distinguishes direct evidence from proxies.
Evidence for satisfaction
Record what supports each completion condition and where evidence remains inadequate or contested.
- What observations would establish each completion condition, and how current must they be? measurement
- Could the chosen indicator meet its target while the intended state remains unachieved? boundary
Plans and subgoals Connects the goal to proposed means and supporting outcomes.
Plan support
Records which plans aim at the goal and why they are expected to achieve it.
Means to outcome link
Represent the assumptions connecting a plan to the intended state without reproducing the plan's execution details.
- Which plan is intended to achieve this goal, and what assumptions connect its execution to the outcome? provenance
- What evidence would justify replacing the plan while leaving the goal unchanged? action
Subgoal sufficiency
Distinguishes required supporting outcomes from optional contributions and alternative routes.
Decomposition logic
Record whether subgoals are necessary, jointly sufficient, alternative, or merely helpful.
- Which subgoals are required, and which provide alternative ways to achieve the parent goal? definition
- Could every listed subgoal be achieved while the parent goal remains unsatisfied? boundary
Compatibility and pursuit limits Locates the goal among competing outcomes and limits on acceptable pursuit.
Goal conflicts
Identifies incompatible outcomes and competition between otherwise compatible pursuits.
Conflict and priority
Distinguish logical incompatibility from resource or timing conflicts, and record authorized priorities.
- Which other goals cannot be satisfied alongside this one, and which only compete for time or resources? boundary
- What authorized priority or tradeoff rule governs a conflict between these goals? action
Acceptable pursuit
Connects pursuit to applicable constraints and authority limits.
Limits on means
Record constraints on pursuing the goal and distinguish those constraints from conditions defining success.
- Which conditions define successful achievement, and which separately restrict acceptable ways to pursue it? boundary
- When the available means exceed authority or violate a constraint, who may revise the goal or authorize another approach? action
Pursuit and termination Separates the truth of the intended state from the lifecycle of commitment and activity.
Pursuit state
Tracks whether the goal is being pursued and why its status changes.
Commitment versus achievement
Record adoption, activity, suspension, withdrawal, and replacement independently of satisfaction.
- Is this goal currently adopted and actively pursued, suspended, withdrawn, or superseded? definition
- What decision or event explains its current pursuit status, and was achievement assessed separately? provenance
Achievement-triggered stop
Identifies the behavior whose achievement-directed purpose ends when the goal is satisfied.
Termination boundary
Specify which pursuit should end and whether subsequent verification, maintenance, or renewed pursuit has a separate basis.
- Once satisfaction is established, which actions directed toward achieving this goal should terminate? action
- If the achieved state later ceases to hold, does renewed pursuit require reactivation, a new goal, or an existing maintenance commitment? boundary
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of goal this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of goal this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of goal this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of goal this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of goal this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of goal this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Information and virtual systems
- Entry kind
- noun.cognition
- Plane
- INF
- Domain
- INF.KNW
- Facets: substance
- information
- Facets: origin
- conceptual
- Facets: agency
- inert
- Facets: mobility
- not-applicable
- Facets: scale
- not-applicable
- Facets: affordances
- readable
- Other names and narrower kinds
- end, aim, object, objective, target, bourn, bourne, end-all, destination, terminus, grail, no-goal
What it is Filled
A goal is a represented state of affairs that a plan or course of action is intended to bring about, whose achievement supplies the completion condition for behavior directed toward it.
In scope
- The intended state of affairs and its applicable context
- Who holds or adopts the goal and who may revise it
- Conditions and evidence for judging achievement
- Relationships to plans, subgoals, dependencies, and competing goals
- Goal status and termination of behavior directed toward its achievement
Out of scope
- The internal sequence, scheduling, and resource allocation of a plan
- Execution records and mechanics of individual actions
- General preferences or values that have not become adopted goals
- Metrics and observations considered independently of goal satisfaction
- Sporting scores or scoring events, including a drop goal
Why it exists Filled
Enable an agent to identify an intended state of affairs, assess whether it has been achieved, and determine which goal-directed actions should continue, change, or terminate.
Distinguishing features Filled
- A goal describes a state to bring about; a plan describes how to bring it about.
- A goal is adopted as an intended outcome; a prediction describes an expected outcome without requiring that intention.
- A goal has conditions under which it counts as achieved; an ongoing activity may have no achievement condition.
- A metric or numerical target represents a goal only when its attainment is itself the intended state or a justified test of that state.
- Under the registry definition, achievement terminates the corresponding pursuit; an indefinite obligation to preserve a condition requires an explicit boundary with maintenance behavior.
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Pursue its own goals against or beyond what its principal set.
- Hide failures or game metrics to appear to meet a goal.
- Set goals for a person without their agreement.
- Pursue a goal by means that harm people outside the task.
Only with a human decision
- Changing or dropping a goal that others depend on.
May
- Help a user state, plan and track their own goals.
- Report progress toward a goal set by its principal honestly.
Moral aspects Filled
- Agents chasing a goal can cause harm to people the goal ignores.
- People's goals belong to them and should not be manipulated.
Who is affected
- Users
- Third parties affected by goal pursuit
Owners Filled
Steward
Nobody owns the concept; whoever sets a goal answers for it.
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- oewn-05817200-n - registry parent class
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.goal
- Open English WordNet: oewn-05989760-n
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
- Intended state: A proposition describing the desired state, with affected entities and context
- Goal holder: Agent or collective that adopts the intended state
- Revision authority: Actor or decision process authorized to revise, suspend, or withdraw the goal
- Satisfaction rule: Explicit conditions, thresholds, tolerances, and their logical combination; unresolved where unspecified
- Temporal condition: Deadline, qualifying interval, required duration, or explicitly unspecified
- Pursuit status: Proposed, adopted, active, suspended, closed, withdrawn, or superseded
- Satisfaction assessment: Satisfied, unsatisfied, unknown, or disputed, at a stated assessment time
- Achievement evidence: Observations or assessments linked to particular satisfaction conditions
- Means and goal relationships: Pursued by plan; contributes to, requires, conflicts with, or is an alternative to another goal
- Distance to satisfaction: Goal-specific units where a justified measure exists; otherwise undefined
Plane INF: no invented physical properties.
Recognition not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
A goal is an abstract represented state and has no intrinsic visual features.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- Clarify the intended state and expose missing satisfaction conditions.
- Assess achievement against evidence while preserving unknown or disputed judgments.
- Compare or replace plans while retaining the same intended outcome.
- Decompose a goal and test whether the proposed subgoals actually support its achievement.
- Identify conflicting goals and seek an authorized priority or tradeoff decision.
- Terminate the corresponding pursuit after confirmed achievement, or record a distinct reason for stopping without achievement.
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- An ambiguous completion condition can cause premature termination or indefinite activity.
- A poorly specified goal can encourage behavior that achieves a stated target while harming people or property.
- Conflicting goals can produce inconsistent decisions or prevent an agent from completing its task.
Standards and interfaces not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
No universal standard or legal classification applies to a goal as an abstract intended state independently of its application.
Context of use required Filled
- Goals are used in planning, task assignment and autonomous behavior to represent the state that actions should achieve.
- They support progress assessment and decisions about whether to continue, revise or terminate a course of action.
Sources Filled
- Open English WordNet 2024, synset oewn-05989760-n - sense and gloss of the concept
- Wiktionary: goal - word senses and usage
Open questions
- Does the registry treat a desired state adopted before any plan exists as a goal, or require an explicit plan relationship?
- Does the achievement-terminates-behavior clause describe the goal's intended control role, or require evidence that pursuit actually stopped?
- How should indefinite maintenance goals be represented under a definition centered on achievement and termination?
- When satisfaction conditions are revised, what distinguishes clarification of the same goal from replacement by a different goal?
- What establishes adoption and an authoritative satisfaction judgment for a collective whose members disagree?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-goal/spec.json