{ "model": { "rank": 4371, "code": "thing-q621184", "model_id": "vr.tr.problem", "name": "problem", "purpose": "Let an agent handle problems by domain, definition, causes, options and evidence, and route people facing harm to appropriate help.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.MED", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q621184/", "tier": 2, "score": 76, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "hospital housekeeping", "sweatshop", "black company", "white company", "cult", "Ant Hill Kids", "Religious cult", "quest", "daily tasks", "main quest", "daily quest", "questline", "weekly tasks", "raid", "kill quest", "Combo quest", "delivery quest", "gather quest", "escort quest", "Syntax quest", "side quest", "trade-off", "utility maximization problem", "exploration–exploitation dilemma", "security trade-off", "Evolutionary trade-offs", "space–time tradeoff", "Patient trade-off", "computer slowdown", "exploding gradient problem", "principal–agent problem", "statistical problem", "names for the Korean language", "engine knocking", "political issue", "mathematical problem", "research priority", "research problem", "Parent-Child Contact Problem", "open problem" ], "aliasCount": 436, "merged": 439, "knownIn": 76, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.problem-communication", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q621184", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q621184", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T07:27:59Z", "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-Q621184", "registryId": "vr.tr.problem", "name": "problem", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.MED" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q621184/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.problem", "name": "problem", "purpose": "Let an agent handle problems by domain, definition, causes, options and evidence, and route people facing harm to appropriate help.", "definition": "A situation or matter regarded as unwelcome, harmful or needing to be dealt with and overcome, from everyday problems to social problems such as exploitative labour; in mathematics and logic, a question to be solved.", "what_it_is_for": "Framing what needs to be solved.", "affordances": [ "define the problem clearly", "analyse causes", "generate and compare solutions", "seek help for serious personal or social problems" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Gap between current and desired state", "Personal, social, technical or formal", "Framing shapes solutions", "Some problems involve harm to people" ], "appearance": "Not an object; a situation needing resolution.", "visual_identification": [ "Problem statements", "Social problems such as sweatshops or coercive groups", "Mathematical problems have formal statements" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "personal problems", "social problems", "technical and engineering problems", "mathematical and logic problems", "organisational problems" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "situation", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is addressed by", "target": "problem solving", "why": "process" }, { "relation": "has", "target": "cause", "why": "origin" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "risk", "why": "potential problem" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Problem management practices such as ITIL", "Labour and consumer protection law for social problems" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Solving the wrong problem", "Blaming individuals for system problems", "Missing people who need urgent help" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "What the problem is.", "rationale": "Framing matters.", "layers": [ { "id": "statement", "name": "Statement", "description": "Clear framing.", "findings": [ { "id": "statement-finding", "name": "Statement", "description": "Problem statement.", "questions": [ { "text": "What exactly is the problem, for whom?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "How is success measured?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] }, { "id": "domain", "name": "Domain", "description": "Personal, social, technical.", "findings": [ { "id": "domain-finding", "name": "Domain", "description": "Domain.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which domain does it belong to?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which specific entry fits?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "analysis", "name": "Analysis", "description": "Causes.", "rationale": "Causes guide solutions.", "layers": [ { "id": "causes", "name": "Causes", "description": "Root causes.", "findings": [ { "id": "causes-finding", "name": "Causes", "description": "Causes.", "questions": [ { "text": "What causes the problem?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What evidence supports that?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "scale", "name": "Scale", "description": "Size and impact.", "findings": [ { "id": "scale-finding", "name": "Scale", "description": "Scale.", "questions": [ { "text": "How large is the problem, and who is affected?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "From which data?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "solutions", "name": "Solutions", "description": "Options.", "rationale": "Options need comparison.", "layers": [ { "id": "options", "name": "Options", "description": "Alternatives.", "findings": [ { "id": "options-finding", "name": "Options", "description": "Options.", "questions": [ { "text": "What options exist?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What are their trade-offs?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence", "name": "Evidence", "description": "What works.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-finding", "name": "Evidence", "description": "Evidence.", "questions": [ { "text": "What evidence shows which options work?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "In similar contexts?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "help", "name": "Help", "description": "People affected.", "rationale": "Some problems harm people.", "layers": [ { "id": "urgent", "name": "Urgent", "description": "Risk of harm.", "findings": [ { "id": "urgent-finding", "name": "Urgent", "description": "Urgent help.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is someone at risk of harm and in need of urgent help?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which services can help?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "report", "name": "Report", "description": "Authorities.", "findings": [ { "id": "report-finding", "name": "Report", "description": "Reporting.", "questions": [ { "text": "Should exploitation or abuse be reported, and to whom?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Is anonymous reporting possible?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should social problems be separate entries?", "How should mathematical problems be split off?", "Registry aliases list specific social issues; how should they be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "work, medium or creative form", "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 problem, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent handle problems by domain, definition, causes, options and evidence, and route people facing harm to appropriate help.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted", "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: hospital housekeeping, sweatshop, black company, white company, cult, Ant Hill Kids, Religious cult, quest, daily tasks, main quest, daily quest, questline.", "439 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 76 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 problem, 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", "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "What is seen is a copy or a performance, not the work. Recognising the work means recognising the content through whatever is carrying it." ], "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": [ "hospital housekeeping", "sweatshop", "black company", "white company", "cult", "Ant Hill Kids", "Religious cult", "quest", "daily tasks", "main quest", "daily quest", "questline" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 76 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 439 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 problem from another, and a problem 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 problem, 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 problem, 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 problem 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 problem, 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 problem, 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 problem 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 problem 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 problem, 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 problem, 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 problem 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 problem from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a problem, 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 problem, 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 problem 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 problem 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 problem between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a problem, 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 problem, 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 problem 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 problem, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a problem 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 problem, 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 problem, 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 problem 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 problem 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 problem contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a problem, 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 problem, 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 problem 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 problem and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a problem, 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 problem, 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 problem is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "work-and-manifestation", "name": "Work, version and copy", "description": "Which level of problem a statement is about.", "rationale": "The work, the edition, the file and the copy in hand are four things; rights and content attach to different ones.", "layers": [ { "id": "levels", "name": "Levels of the thing", "description": "Work, expression, manifestation and item, in plain terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "level-rules", "name": "What belongs at each level", "description": "Which facts hold for the work and which only for one copy.", "questions": [ { "id": "level-rules-q01", "text": "For problem, which facts belong to the work itself, which to a version, and which to a single copy?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "level-rules-q02", "text": "What identifier exists at each level, and which one is being cited?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "versions", "name": "Versions, editions and variants", "description": "How versions differ and which is canonical to whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "version-record", "name": "Versions and canonicity", "description": "Differences that matter and who calls one authoritative.", "questions": [ { "id": "version-record-q01", "text": "Which versions or editions of problem exist, and how do they differ substantively?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "version-record-q02", "text": "Who treats which version as authoritative, and for what purpose?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "authorship-and-rights", "name": "Authorship, rights and permitted use", "description": "Who made problem and what may be done with it.", "rationale": "Rights are jurisdictional, time-limited and attached to a level, and an agent that ignores that will copy what it may not.", "layers": [ { "id": "authorship", "name": "Authorship and contribution", "description": "Who contributed what, and in what capacity.", "findings": [ { "id": "contribution-record", "name": "Contributors and roles", "description": "The people and bodies behind it, with their roles.", "questions": [ { "id": "contribution-record-q01", "text": "Who authored or contributed to problem, in what roles, and how is that attested?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "contribution-record-q02", "text": "Where authorship is disputed or anonymous, what is recorded instead?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "rights", "name": "Rights and permissions", "description": "Which rights subsist, where, until when, and what they permit.", "findings": [ { "id": "rights-record", "name": "Rights, term and permitted acts", "description": "The regime in force and what it allows.", "questions": [ { "id": "rights-record-q01", "text": "What rights subsist in problem, in which jurisdictions, and until when?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "rights-record-q02", "text": "Which acts are permitted without further permission, and which must an agent refuse?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a problem 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 problem and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a problem, 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 problem, 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 problem 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 problem is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a problem, 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 problem, 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 problem 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 } } } }