{ "model": { "rank": 2134, "code": "thing-q41719", "model_id": "vr.tr.hypothesis", "name": "hypothesis", "purpose": "Let an agent help formulate, evaluate and test hypotheses, distinguish hypotheses from theories and speculation, and present unconfirmed hypotheses with appropriate uncertainty and attribution.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q41719/", "tier": 2, "score": 114, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "taxon hypothesis", "one-electron universe", "Panspermia", "existential risk from artificial intelligence", "gravitational decoherence", "research hypothesis", "testable hypothesis", "unifying hypothesis", "auxiliary hypotheses", "dynasty replacement theory", "predictive hypothesis", "explanatory hypothesis", "unproven hypothesis", "epigenetic code", "Candidate gene", "Putative gene", "mathematical hypothesis (physics)", "Erdős conjecture", "ad hoc hypothesis", "unscientific hypothesis", "scientific hypothesis", "working hypothesis", "failed hypothesis", "unconfirmed hypothesis", "neutral particle oscillation", "von Baer's laws", "alternative hypothesis", "tree model", "molecular mechanism", "neutron–antineutron oscillation" ], "aliasCount": 30, "merged": 30, "knownIn": 114, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.hypothesis", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q41719", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q41719", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T16:05:28Z", "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": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q41719", "registryId": "vr.tr.hypothesis", "name": "hypothesis", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q41719/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.hypothesis", "name": "hypothesis", "purpose": "Let an agent help formulate, evaluate and test hypotheses, distinguish hypotheses from theories and speculation, and present unconfirmed hypotheses with appropriate uncertainty and attribution.", "definition": "A proposed explanation or testable statement made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for investigation, such as a research hypothesis in science, a taxon hypothesis in biology, or speculative proposals like panspermia; a good hypothesis is falsifiable, and hypotheses become theories only after extensive testing and support.", "what_it_is_for": "Scientific reasoning and research design.", "affordances": [ "formulate a testable hypothesis", "design tests and identify predictions", "distinguish hypothesis, theory and speculation", "present hypotheses with attribution and uncertainty" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Proposed explanation", "Testable and falsifiable", "Provisional", "Basis of investigation" ], "appearance": "Not physical; statements in research and reasoning.", "visual_identification": [ "Testable statements", "Null and alternative forms in statistics", "A theory is a well-supported explanatory framework" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "research hypotheses", "statistical null and alternative hypotheses", "taxonomic hypotheses", "speculative scientific hypotheses", "working hypotheses in everyday reasoning" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "proposition", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "premise", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is tested by", "target": "experiment", "why": "method" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "logic", "why": "reasoning" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Research integrity and preregistration norms", "Statistical reporting guidelines" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Presenting hypotheses as facts", "Unfalsifiable claims", "HARKing and p-hacking" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "formulate", "name": "Formulate", "description": "Making a hypothesis.", "rationale": "Testable and clear.", "layers": [ { "id": "state", "name": "State", "description": "Stating it.", "findings": [ { "id": "state-finding", "name": "State", "description": "Stating.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the hypothesis, stated precisely and testably?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What would falsify it?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "predictions", "name": "Predictions", "description": "Deriving predictions.", "findings": [ { "id": "predictions-finding", "name": "Predictions", "description": "Predictions.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which observable predictions follow from the hypothesis?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which alternatives predict differently?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "test", "name": "Test", "description": "Testing.", "rationale": "Design matters.", "layers": [ { "id": "design", "name": "Design", "description": "Study design.", "findings": [ { "id": "design-finding", "name": "Design", "description": "Design.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can the hypothesis be tested, and what design controls confounds?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Should the study be preregistered?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "statistics", "name": "Statistics", "description": "Null hypotheses.", "findings": [ { "id": "statistics-finding", "name": "Statistics", "description": "Statistics.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the null and alternative hypotheses, and which test applies?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What do p-values and effect sizes mean here?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "status", "name": "Status", "description": "Hypothesis or theory.", "rationale": "Words matter.", "layers": [ { "id": "terms", "name": "Terms", "description": "Terminology.", "findings": [ { "id": "terms-finding", "name": "Terms", "description": "Terminology.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is this a hypothesis, a theory or speculation, and how is the term used in this field?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is uncertainty communicated clearly?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "speculative", "name": "Speculative", "description": "Famous hypotheses.", "findings": [ { "id": "speculative-finding", "name": "Speculative", "description": "Famous hypotheses.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the status of hypotheses such as panspermia, according to the scientific community?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Who proposed them, and what evidence exists?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "practice", "name": "Practice", "description": "Everyday and research use.", "rationale": "Reasoning skill.", "layers": [ { "id": "everyday", "name": "Everyday", "description": "Working hypotheses.", "findings": [ { "id": "everyday-finding", "name": "Everyday", "description": "Working hypotheses.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can hypothesis thinking help solve this practical problem?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "How can confirmation bias be avoided?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "integrity", "name": "Integrity", "description": "Research integrity.", "findings": [ { "id": "integrity-finding", "name": "Integrity", "description": "Integrity.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which practices such as preregistration guard against HARKing and p-hacking?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How should negative results be reported?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should statistical hypothesis testing be a separate entry?", "How should preregistration resources be linked?", "How should speculative hypotheses be labelled?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "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 hypothesis, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent help formulate, evaluate and test hypotheses, distinguish hypotheses from theories and speculation, and present unconfirmed hypotheses with appropriate uncertainty and attribution.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: taxon hypothesis, one-electron universe, Panspermia, existential risk from artificial intelligence, gravitational decoherence, research hypothesis, testable hypothesis, unifying hypothesis, auxiliary hypotheses, dynasty replacement theory, predictive hypothesis, explanatory hypothesis.", "30 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 114 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 hypothesis, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "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": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "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": [ "taxon hypothesis", "one-electron universe", "Panspermia", "existential risk from artificial intelligence", "gravitational decoherence", "research hypothesis", "testable hypothesis", "unifying hypothesis", "auxiliary hypotheses", "dynasty replacement theory", "predictive hypothesis", "explanatory hypothesis" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 114 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 30 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 hypothesis from another, and a hypothesis 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 hypothesis, 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 hypothesis, 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 hypothesis 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 hypothesis, 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 hypothesis, 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 hypothesis 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 hypothesis 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 hypothesis, 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 hypothesis, 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 hypothesis 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 hypothesis from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a hypothesis, 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 hypothesis, 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 hypothesis 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 hypothesis 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 hypothesis between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a hypothesis, 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 hypothesis, 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 hypothesis 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 hypothesis, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a hypothesis 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 hypothesis, 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 hypothesis, 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 hypothesis is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a hypothesis says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a hypothesis contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a hypothesis, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a hypothesis, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a hypothesis is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a hypothesis and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a hypothesis, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a hypothesis, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a hypothesis is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What hypothesis studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does hypothesis take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does hypothesis establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where hypothesis is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark hypothesis as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place hypothesis, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a hypothesis 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 hypothesis and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a hypothesis, 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 hypothesis, 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 hypothesis 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 hypothesis is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a hypothesis, 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 hypothesis, 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 hypothesis is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }