{ "model": { "rank": 7385, "code": "thing-q202722", "model_id": "vr.tr.consensus", "name": "consensus", "purpose": "Let an agent explain consensus as a state and as a decision rule, describe formal consensus processes and scientific consensus, present its uses in religious and legal traditions with attribution, and support group decision questions.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.STA", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q202722/", "tier": 2, "score": 55, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Ijma", "Uniform Consensus", "Magnus consensus", "scientific consensus", "formal consensus", "internal consensus", "medical consensus" ], "aliasCount": 7, "merged": 8, "knownIn": 55, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q202722", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q202722", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T05:22:10Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q202722", "registryId": "vr.tr.consensus", "name": "consensus", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.STA" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q202722/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.consensus", "name": "consensus", "purpose": "Let an agent explain consensus as a state and as a decision rule, describe formal consensus processes and scientific consensus, present its uses in religious and legal traditions with attribution, and support group decision questions.", "definition": "A state of general agreement among the members of a group, reached by discussion and accommodation rather than by majority vote, and used as a decision rule in bodies such as international organisations, cooperatives and formal consensus processes, as a description of broad agreement among experts in scientific consensus, and as a principle in religious law such as ijma in Islamic jurisprudence; consensus is valued for legitimacy and cohesion and debated for its costs in time and its vulnerability to blocking.", "what_it_is_for": "General agreement in a group.", "affordances": [ "explain the concept", "describe consensus processes", "describe scientific consensus", "present traditions with attribution" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Broad agreement", "Process-based", "Legitimacy", "Blocking risk" ], "appearance": "Not physical; a state of agreement.", "visual_identification": [ "General agreement without formal vote", "Decision rule, scientific consensus, religious principle", "Unanimity requires every vote; majority rule counts votes; compromise is one path to consensus" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "consensus decision-making in groups", "consensus in international organisations", "scientific consensus", "consensus in religious law such as ijma", "consensus algorithms in computing" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "state", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "debate", "why": "discussion leading to agreement" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "decision", "why": "decisions taken by consensus" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "skepticism", "why": "questioning claimed consensus" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Rules of procedure of bodies using consensus", "Standards development consensus rules", "No regulation of the concept" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Blocking by small minorities", "False consensus under pressure", "Misrepresenting scientific consensus" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What consensus is.", "rationale": "Concepts.", "layers": [ { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "Concept and kinds.", "findings": [ { "id": "concept-finding", "name": "Concept", "description": "Concept.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is consensus, and how does it differ from unanimity, majority and compromise?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which sense of consensus is meant?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "processes", "name": "Processes", "description": "Consensus processes.", "findings": [ { "id": "processes-finding", "name": "Processes", "description": "Processes.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do formal consensus processes work in groups, cooperatives and international bodies?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits group facilitation?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "apply", "name": "Apply", "description": "Reaching consensus.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "facilitate", "name": "Facilitate", "description": "Facilitating.", "findings": [ { "id": "facilitate-finding", "name": "Facilitate", "description": "Facilitation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can this group reach consensus, and how are objections and blocks handled?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which entry fits meeting procedure?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "limits", "name": "Limits", "description": "Limits and critiques.", "findings": [ { "id": "limits-finding", "name": "Limits", "description": "Limits.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the costs and risks of consensus rules, with critiques attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation balanced?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "domains", "name": "Domains", "description": "Consensus in science and religion.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "science", "name": "Science", "description": "Scientific consensus.", "findings": [ { "id": "science-finding", "name": "Science", "description": "Science.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is scientific consensus, how is it established, and how should it be represented?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation accurate about the state of consensus?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "religion", "name": "Religion", "description": "Consensus in religious law.", "findings": [ { "id": "religion-finding", "name": "Religion", "description": "Religion.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is ijma in Islamic jurisprudence, and how do other traditions use consensus, in their own terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits Islamic jurisprudence?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "History and teaching.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How has consensus been used historically in assemblies, councils and communities?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can consensus decision-making be taught?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should consensus decision-making be a separate entry?", "How should procedure rules be linked?", "How should scientific consensus statements be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a consensus, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain consensus as a state and as a decision rule, describe formal consensus processes and scientific consensus, present its uses in religious and legal traditions with attribution, and support group decision questions.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Ijma, Uniform Consensus, Magnus consensus, scientific consensus, formal consensus, internal consensus, medical consensus.", "8 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 55 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a consensus, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Ijma", "Uniform Consensus", "Magnus consensus", "scientific consensus", "formal consensus", "internal consensus", "medical consensus" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 55 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 8 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one consensus from another, and a consensus from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a consensus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a consensus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a consensus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a consensus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a consensus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a consensus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a consensus sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a consensus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a consensus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a consensus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a consensus from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a consensus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a consensus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a consensus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a consensus passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a consensus between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a consensus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a consensus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a consensus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a consensus, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a consensus is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a consensus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a consensus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a consensus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What consensus is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of consensus are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is consensus operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of consensus and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of consensus?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as consensus?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a consensus came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a consensus and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a consensus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a consensus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a consensus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a consensus is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a consensus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a consensus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a consensus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }