{ "model": { "rank": 6321, "code": "thing-q217123", "model_id": "vr.tr.oracle", "name": "oracle", "purpose": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a person acting as an oracle, assess the authority and limits attributed to their pronouncements, and determine how those pronouncements may be sought, interpreted or used.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.PER", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q217123/", "tier": 2, "score": 61, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "bibliomancer", "Necromanteion", "Huaca", "Velichappadu" ], "aliasCount": 4, "merged": 4, "knownIn": 61, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q217123", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q217123", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-07T13:47:48Z", "providers": [ "Codex", "Grok" ], "missingProviders": [], "pass": 2, "cost": { "grok": { "usd": 0.00518942, "turns": 1, "seconds": 62.3, "error": null }, "codex": { "seconds": 76.3, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.3\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a07c1e-dc3d-76a3-83bd-87302bed4ec5\n--------\nuser\nYou are drafting a Vercy meta-model for one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: oracle\nRegistry id: vr.tr.oracle\nPlane / domain: SOC / SOC.PER\nRegistry definition: (none recorded)\nNames folded into this entry: (none)\n\nA Vercy mod" } } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q217123", "registryId": "vr.tr.oracle", "name": "oracle", "version": "0.1.0-research.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.PER" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q217123/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.oracle", "name": "oracle", "purpose": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a person acting as an oracle, assess the authority and limits attributed to their pronouncements, and determine how those pronouncements may be sought, interpreted or used.", "definition": "An oracle is a person, shrine, or institution treated as a legitimate channel of knowledge that is not available through ordinary inquiry, typically answering a petitioner's question with a verdict, omen, or instruction that the community then treats as binding or advisory.", "scope_statement": "Provisionally interpret oracle in SOC / SOC.PER as a person recognised as conveying answers attributed to a divine, supernatural or otherwise extraordinary source; own the person's oracular role, recognition, consultation boundaries and pronouncement accountability, without assuming the attributed source is real or the answers are true.", "in_scope": [ "The person's identification and recognition specifically as an oracle", "The source of insight or authority attributed to their answers", "Conditions governing access, consultation and refusal", "How pronouncements are conveyed, attributed and interpreted", "The scope, limitations and consequences of reliance on their answers" ], "out_of_scope": [ "An oracle sanctuary or consultation site as a place", "A religious institution's wider organisation and governance", "A deity, spirit or cosmological system independently of its attributed relationship to the oracle", "A divination instrument or technique independently of the person's role", "A blockchain data oracle, computational oracle or Oracle software product", "An individual prophecy or consultation transcript as an independently managed information artifact" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Determine whether a person occupies the role, rather than the name referring to a sanctuary, institution, utterance or technical service.", "Determine whether answers are attributed to an extraordinary source, rather than solely to ordinary expertise, evidence or forecasting methods.", "Look for recognition of a role in conveying authoritative answers; an isolated prediction or casual description as 'an oracle' may be insufficient.", "Establish whether the person conveys an attributed answer, interprets another person's answer, or merely administers consultations; these roles should not be silently merged.", "Record the community's distinction, if any, between oracle, prophet, medium and diviner instead of assuming these labels are interchangeable." ], "characteristics": [ { "name": "Oracular recognition", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Person → recognising community, institution or individual, with evidence and period", "why_it_matters": "Allows recognition to be assessed relative to particular observers rather than treated as universal authority." }, { "name": "Attributed source of answers", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Person → named or described source, with attribution author; unknown or disputed permitted", "why_it_matters": "Separates a claim about the origin of answers from an agent's endorsement of that claim." }, { "name": "Role standing", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Candidate descriptors: recognised, contested, suspended, retired, historical, unknown; time and recognising party required", "why_it_matters": "Prevents historical recognition or one group's acceptance from being treated as present permission to consult." }, { "name": "Consultation remit", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Attested accepted, restricted and excluded question types", "why_it_matters": "Determines whether a proposed question falls within the person's recognised role." }, { "name": "Pronouncement mediation", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Direct answer, answer through interpreter, mediated record, mixed or unknown", "why_it_matters": "Identifies where interpretation or transmission may alter what is attributed to the oracle." }, { "name": "Consultation availability", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Available, conditional, unavailable or unknown, with stated conditions", "why_it_matters": "Distinguishes recognised authority from practical and permitted access." }, { "name": "Attributed decision force", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Advisory, binding within a named authority system, contested, unspecified or unknown", "why_it_matters": "Records what followers or institutions believe an answer authorises without granting it independent authority." }, { "name": "Assessable prediction record", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "Counts of eligible, resolved, unresolved and disputed predictions under an explicit assessment method", "why_it_matters": "Supports bounded evaluation when answers contain testable predictions without forcing symbolic or normative answers into an accuracy score." } ], "affordances": [ "Identify the person and distinguish their oracular role from adjacent religious or advisory roles.", "Check whether a proposed consultation fits the recorded remit, access conditions and consent.", "Prepare a question that preserves the seeker's wording and the limits of the requested answer.", "Link a pronouncement to its attributed speaker, consultation context and transmission chain.", "Compare interpretations or assess a testable prediction using explicit criteria.", "Determine whether reliance, further clarification, referral or non-action is justified by the available evidence and authority." ] }, "sources": [ { "id": "park-oracles-1997", "title": "Sibyls and Sibylline Prophecy in Classical Antiquity", "url": "", "what_it_supports": "Classical naming of sibyls and related prophetic figures as a distinct variety of Greek and Roman oracular practice." }, { "id": "fontenrose-delphi-1978", "title": "The Delphic Oracle: Its Responses and Operations, with a Catalogue of Responses", "url": "", "what_it_supports": "How a major Greek shrine oracle actually received petitioners, produced responses, and how those responses were recorded and reused." }, { "id": "johnston-divination-2008", "title": "Ancient Greek Divination", "url": "", "what_it_supports": "The working distinction among inspired seers, lot oracles, omen-reading, and incubation in Greek practice." }, { "id": "bowden-oracle-2005", "title": "Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle: Divination and Democracy", "url": "", "what_it_supports": "State use of a shrine oracle for public decisions, and the difference between civic consultation and private fortune-telling." } ], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "oracular-identity", "name": "Oracular identity", "description": "Establish who bears the oracular role and who recognises it.", "rationale": "The label can refer to a person, office, place or answer, and recognition may differ between communities.", "layers": [ { "id": "person-and-role", "name": "Person and role", "description": "Separate the individual from an oracular title or office.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-bearer-boundary", "name": "Role bearer boundary", "description": "Record evidence identifying the person and distinguishing their identity from any title, office or consultation site.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does oracle designate this person, an office they occupy, or something other than a person?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "role-bearer-boundary-q01" }, { "text": "Which names, titles and dated records establish this person's occupancy of the role?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "role-bearer-boundary-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "recognition-and-standing", "name": "Recognition and standing", "description": "Locate oracular recognition within a community and period.", "findings": [ { "id": "situated-recognition", "name": "Situated recognition", "description": "Record who accepts or contests the person's oracular standing and the grounds stated by each party.", "questions": [ { "text": "Who recognises this person as an oracle, and what evidence documents that recognition?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "situated-recognition-q01" }, { "text": "What establishes, suspends or ends their standing within each recognising community?", "kind": "definition", "id": "situated-recognition-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "attributed-answer-authority", "name": "Attributed answer authority", "description": "Describe the claimed origin and recognised remit of the person's answers.", "rationale": "An agent must distinguish attributed extraordinary authority from demonstrated knowledge and from permission to direct decisions.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-transmission-claims", "name": "Source and transmission claims", "description": "Capture accounts of where answers originate and how the person is said to receive them.", "findings": [ { "id": "attributed-origin", "name": "Attributed origin", "description": "Record the attributed source and mode of reception as claims made by identifiable parties.", "questions": [ { "text": "What source is said to supply the answers, and who makes that attribution?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "attributed-origin-q01" }, { "text": "How is the person's contribution described: receiving, voicing, interpreting or generating an answer?", "kind": "definition", "id": "attributed-origin-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "recognised-remit", "name": "Recognised remit", "description": "Specify which questions and decisions the attributed authority covers.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-limits", "name": "Authority limits", "description": "Record accepted question domains, exclusions and the decision force attributed to answers.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which matters may this oracle address, and which are excluded or disputed?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "authority-limits-q01" }, { "text": "Who treats an answer as advice or an obligation, and what recorded rule supports that treatment?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "authority-limits-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "consultation-conditions", "name": "Consultation conditions", "description": "Determine whether and how a seeker may approach this oracle.", "rationale": "Recognition alone does not establish availability, eligibility or consent to answer a particular question.", "layers": [ { "id": "access-and-admission", "name": "Access and admission", "description": "Record the actual conditions for requesting an oracular consultation.", "findings": [ { "id": "permitted-approach", "name": "Permitted approach", "description": "Identify authorised access routes and any attested eligibility, timing, preparation or payment conditions.", "questions": [ { "text": "Who may request an answer, through whom, and under what documented conditions?", "kind": "action", "id": "permitted-approach-q01" }, { "text": "Which access conditions are current requirements, historical practices or uncertain reports?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "permitted-approach-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "question-acceptance", "name": "Question acceptance", "description": "Preserve the question submitted and the oracle's ability to accept, qualify or refuse it.", "findings": [ { "id": "consultation-boundary", "name": "Consultation boundary", "description": "Record accepted wording, restrictions on disclosure and the status of a refusal or absent answer.", "questions": [ { "text": "What question was accepted, and did a gatekeeper or interpreter change its wording?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "consultation-boundary-q01" }, { "text": "When must a request be clarified, declined or stopped, and may silence be interpreted as an answer?", "kind": "action", "id": "consultation-boundary-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "pronouncement-and-interpretation", "name": "Pronouncement and interpretation", "description": "Preserve the distinction between an attributed answer and subsequent interpretations.", "rationale": "An agent cannot assess or act on an answer reliably if speaker, wording and interpretive additions are conflated.", "layers": [ { "id": "answer-attribution", "name": "Answer attribution", "description": "Connect reported pronouncements to the person and consultation that allegedly produced them.", "findings": [ { "id": "utterance-evidence", "name": "Utterance evidence", "description": "Link to evidence of wording or expression, witnesses, recording circumstances and transmission gaps.", "questions": [ { "text": "What surviving evidence supports attributing this answer to the oracle?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "utterance-evidence-q01" }, { "text": "Which parts are recorded expression, translation, paraphrase or later reconstruction?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "utterance-evidence-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "interpretive-authority", "name": "Interpretive authority", "description": "Identify who assigns meaning to an answer and preserve unresolved alternatives.", "findings": [ { "id": "meaning-and-disagreement", "name": "Meaning and disagreement", "description": "Record interpretations, their authors and any recognised process for clarification or dispute.", "questions": [ { "text": "Who is recognised as entitled to interpret the answer, and by whom?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "meaning-and-disagreement-q01" }, { "text": "What materially different readings remain, and can clarification be sought before acting?", "kind": "action", "id": "meaning-and-disagreement-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "reliance-and-assessment", "name": "Reliance and assessment", "description": "Evaluate what an answer supports and how subsequent evidence affects reliance.", "rationale": "Social recognition, fidelity of transmission and predictive success answer different questions and must support separate judgements.", "layers": [ { "id": "answer-assessability", "name": "Answer assessability", "description": "Determine whether a pronouncement can be evaluated against observable outcomes.", "findings": [ { "id": "bounded-outcome-check", "name": "Bounded outcome check", "description": "Distinguish testable predictions from advice or symbolic expression, retaining uncertainty and assessment criteria.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the answer specify an observable outcome and time horizon, or is outcome testing inapplicable?", "kind": "definition", "id": "bounded-outcome-check-q01" }, { "text": "What evidence and criteria establish fulfilment, failure or an unresolved result, and when were those criteria fixed?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "bounded-outcome-check-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "decision-use-and-revision", "name": "Decision use and revision", "description": "Connect reliance on an answer to decision authority, consequences and correction.", "findings": [ { "id": "reliance-boundary", "name": "Reliance boundary", "description": "Record who may decide, what corroboration is required and how disputed or withdrawn answers affect pending actions.", "questions": [ { "text": "What action is proposed because of this answer, who may authorise it, and what independent evidence is needed?", "kind": "action", "id": "reliance-boundary-q01" }, { "text": "How should pending reliance change if attribution, interpretation or the oracle's standing is challenged?", "kind": "action", "id": "reliance-boundary-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence-and-external-alignment", "name": "Evidence and external alignment", "description": "What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.", "rationale": "A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.", "layers": [ { "id": "reported-evidence", "name": "Reported evidence", "description": "Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds", "name": "Kinds and varieties", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "temple or shrine oracle (a cult site that answers through a resident seer, priest, or possessed medium)", "inspired or ecstatic seer (a named person speaking under possession, trance, or divine frenzy)", "lot and sortition oracle (answers produced by drawing lots, beans, sticks, or numbered lots)", "omen and extispicy oracle (answers read from entrails, birds, weather, or other observed signs)", "dream incubation oracle (answers received in sleep at a sanctuary after a prescribed rite)", "textual or book oracle (answers drawn from a sacred text, verse, or written lot)", "court or state oracle (an official divinatory office used to authorize war, law, or succession)", "vernacular fortune-telling oracle (cards, geomancy, spirit-medium consultation outside a public cult)" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds-q01", "text": "Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of oracle this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-identifiers", "name": "Identifiers and schemes", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "scheme": "Wikidata", "value_or_pattern": "Q3355940 (oracle as religious institution / prophetic site); also Q182415 (Delphi) for the type specimen shrine", "note": "Wikidata splits the person, the shrine, and specific famous oracles; do not collapse them to a single Q-id without checking instance-of." }, { "scheme": "Getty AAT", "value_or_pattern": "oracles (religious functionaries) / oracular shrines", "note": "Art and architecture thesaurus separates the agent from the place." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-identifiers-q01", "text": "Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of oracle this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation", "name": "Standards and regulation", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "In classical Greek cities, consultation of a public oracle was a civic and cultic act governed by the sanctuary's own ritual law and by the consulting city's decrees, not by a general statute.", "Roman use of the Sibylline Books was a state college procedure (quindecimviri sacris faciundis) under senatorial control.", "Later Christian and Islamic law treated most oracular consultation as illicit divination; enforcement and exceptions (relics, lots, dreams) varied by jurisdiction.", "No ISO or product code governs the religious/social thing; computing 'oracle' senses are out of scope for SOC.PER." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation-q01", "text": "Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of oracle this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-real-world-use", "name": "Real-world use", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "A city or private petitioner travels to a shrine (Delphi, Dodona, Didyma, the Siwa Ammonium, a Korean mudang shrine, a Yoruba Ifá consultation) with a framed yes/no or choice question.", "A priest, pythia, medium, or lot-operator produces a spoken, written, or material answer that is then interpreted by attendants and taken home as a mandate or omen.", "States used oracles to found colonies, declare war, authorize cult change, or legitimate rulers; households use them for marriage, illness, travel, and lost property.", "Surviving 'responses' circulate as inscriptions, literary quotations, and later as tourist or heritage performances at the same sites." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-real-world-use-q01", "text": "Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of oracle this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-measurements", "name": "Typical measurements", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "quantity": "consultation fee or offering", "typical_range": "from a small cake or coin to a major sacrifice; at Delphi a pelanos plus victim, highly variable by period", "unit": "offering / currency of the sanctuary" }, { "quantity": "response length", "typical_range": "a single lot face, a hexameter line, or a short prose sentence; rarely a long speech", "unit": "words or verses" }, { "quantity": "operating calendar", "typical_range": "seasonal or monthly session days rather than continuous availability (e.g. Delphi not year-round in all periods)", "unit": "session days per year" } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-measurements-q01", "text": "Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of oracle this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards", "name": "Failure modes and hazards", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "Ambiguous wording that can be read both ways after the event (the Croesus-type failure).", "Forged, bribed, or politically captured responses.", "Mis-framing of the question so the answer cannot decide the real choice.", "Possession or trance harm to the medium; crowd crush and pilgrimage risk at famous shrines.", "Legal or religious sanction where divination is banned.", "Retroactive invention of 'the oracle said' as propaganda." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01", "text": "Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of oracle this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-regional-variation", "name": "Regional variation", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "Greek practice centres on named panhellenic shrines and inspired priestesses; Roman state practice privileges books of verses and auspices over a resident pythia.", "West African Ifá and related systems are a full professional corpus of verses and palm-nut/chain lots, not a single shrine voice.", "East Asian practice often folds 'oracle' into lot-drawing at temples (kau cim, omikuji) or spirit-mediumship rather than a Delphi-like panhellenic site.", "Abrahamic official religion typically reclassifies the same acts as prophecy (legitimate, past) versus divination (illegitimate, present)." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-regional-variation-q01", "text": "Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of oracle this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-neighbours", "name": "Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "name": "prophet / prophecy", "difference": "A prophet typically claims an unsolicited message from a deity to a people; an oracle is characteristically a question-answering service the petitioner initiates." }, { "name": "seer / mantis", "difference": "A seer may read omens in the field without a shrine; an oracle in the strict cult sense is the site or office that answers on demand." }, { "name": "divination (general)", "difference": "Divination is the whole family of techniques; an oracle is one institutional or personal source treated as authoritative." }, { "name": "oracle (computing / cryptography)", "difference": "A black-box that answers queries in an algorithm or security proof; same metaphor, different kind of thing, not SOC.PER." }, { "name": "medium / spirit medium", "difference": "Overlap is large; test is whether the community treats the sitting as a public answering-office (oracle) or as private spirit contact." }, { "name": "oracle bone (Shang)", "difference": "The bone is the inscribed record of a pyro-osteomantic session; the oracle is the king/diviner practice that produced it." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-neighbours-q01", "text": "Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of oracle this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Does SOC / SOC.PER intend a religious or divinatory person, or does the registry also include people metaphorically described as exceptionally authoritative advisers?", "What registry-specific boundary separates oracle from prophet, medium, seer and diviner, and are existing models already authoritative for any of these concepts?", "Should a continuing oracular office be represented separately from each person who occupies it?", "Which consultation, recognition and interpretation practices are evidenced for the traditions this entry must cover?", "What evidence standards should govern historical attribution and prediction assessment when records are retrospective, selective or ambiguous?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 11, "findings": 18, "questions": 28 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "occupation or role", "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 oracle, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a person acting as an oracle, assess the authority and limits attributed to their pronouncements, and determine how those pronouncements may be sought, interpreted or used.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "natural", "agency": "autonomous", "mobility": "self-moving" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: bibliomancer, Necromanteion, Huaca, Velichappadu.", "4 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 61 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 oracle, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Moves under its own power or of its own accord.", "Acts on its own behalf.", "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": [ "Not recognisable by appearance, and guessing from dress or setting is how an agent gets this wrong. Recognised by qualification, licence or engagement." ], "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": [ "bibliomancer", "Necromanteion", "Huaca", "Velichappadu" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 61 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 4 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 oracle from another, and a oracle 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 oracle, 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 oracle, 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 oracle 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 oracle, 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 oracle, 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 oracle 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 oracle 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 oracle, 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 oracle, 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 oracle 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 oracle from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a oracle, 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 oracle, 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 oracle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "place-and-movement", "name": "Place and movement", "description": "Where a oracle is, how it got there and where it may go (self-moving).", "rationale": "A thing that can move needs its position recorded with a time, or every later claim about it is about a place it has left.", "layers": [ { "id": "location-and-placement", "name": "Location and placement", "description": "Position, containment and the reference frame the position is given in.", "findings": [ { "id": "position-and-frame", "name": "Position, container and reference frame", "description": "Where a oracle is, and what that position is measured against.", "questions": [ { "id": "position-and-frame-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the location of a oracle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "position-and-frame-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the location of a oracle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "position-and-frame-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the location of a oracle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "movement-and-transfer", "name": "Movement and transfer", "description": "How a oracle moves on its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "movement-events", "name": "Movement events and constraints", "description": "What counts as a movement, what records it and what limits it.", "questions": [ { "id": "movement-events-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the movement of a oracle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "movement-events-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the movement of a oracle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "movement-events-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the movement of a oracle 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 oracle 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 oracle between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a oracle, 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 oracle, 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 oracle 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 oracle, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a oracle 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 oracle, 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 oracle, 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 oracle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a oracle.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a oracle and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a oracle, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a oracle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a oracle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a oracle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a oracle and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a oracle sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a oracle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a oracle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a oracle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "competence-and-licence", "name": "Competence, qualification and licence", "description": "What someone must be able to do, and be permitted to do, as oracle.", "rationale": "The permission is jurisdictional and the competence is not, and conflating them is how an agent concludes someone may practise when they may not.", "layers": [ { "id": "competences", "name": "Competences and qualifications", "description": "Skills and credentials the role assumes.", "findings": [ { "id": "qualification-record", "name": "Qualifications and how they are evidenced", "description": "What counts as qualified, and what proves it.", "questions": [ { "id": "qualification-record-q01", "text": "What competences and qualifications does oracle require, and how is each evidenced?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "qualification-record-q02", "text": "Which qualifications transfer between jurisdictions and which do not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "licensing", "name": "Licensing and the right to practise", "description": "Who grants permission, where it holds, and when it lapses.", "findings": [ { "id": "licence-record", "name": "Licence, issuer and validity", "description": "The permission, its issuer, its territory and its expiry.", "questions": [ { "id": "licence-record-q01", "text": "Who licenses oracle, in which territory, and for how long?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "licence-record-q02", "text": "What may an unlicensed person not do, and what must an agent refuse to assume?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "tasks-and-accountability", "name": "Tasks, employment and accountability", "description": "What oracle actually does and who answers for it.", "rationale": "A role is filled by people under an arrangement, and the arrangement decides liability, supervision and who may instruct whom.", "layers": [ { "id": "tasks", "name": "Tasks and typical duties", "description": "The work itself, and how it differs by setting.", "findings": [ { "id": "duty-record", "name": "Duties and setting", "description": "What the role does and where the work varies.", "questions": [ { "id": "duty-record-q01", "text": "What tasks define oracle, and how do they differ between settings or seniority?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "duty-record-q02", "text": "Which tasks may only be done by this role, and which are shared with neighbouring roles?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "accountability", "name": "Employment and accountability", "description": "The relation under which the work is done and where responsibility sits.", "findings": [ { "id": "responsibility", "name": "Responsibility and supervision", "description": "Who instructs, who supervises, who is liable.", "questions": [ { "id": "responsibility-q01", "text": "Under what arrangement does someone act as oracle, and who supervises or is liable?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "responsibility-q02", "text": "When something goes wrong, what does the model need to have recorded to answer who was responsible?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a oracle 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 oracle and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a oracle, 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 oracle, 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 oracle 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 oracle is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a oracle, 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 oracle, 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 oracle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 7, "layers": 14, "findings": 16, "questions": 44 } } } }