{ "model": { "rank": 6594, "code": "thing-q622821", "model_id": "vr.tr.calculation", "name": "calculation", "purpose": "Let an agent perform and explain calculations, choose appropriate methods and precision, check results, and describe calculation history and tools.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.ACT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q622821/", "tier": 2, "score": 59, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "cryptographic data processing", "casting lots", "precomputation", "flush to zero", "written calculation", "back-of-the-envelope calculation", "finger-counting", "Chisanbop", "band structure calculation", "computer arithmetic", "computation", "calculating", "Verbal arithmetic", "propagation of uncertainty", "neuromorphic computing", "differentiation", "technical indicator", "dialling", "satellite navigation solution", "conversion of units", "quantity calculus", "semantic computing", "Fixed-precision arithmetic", "floating point arithmetic", "hashing", "compilation", "evolutionary computing", "ternary computing", "heterogeneous computing", "random number generation", "neural computation", "Generating primes", "Commodity computing", "incremental computation", "Alphametics with blank spaces", "parametric differentiation", "accumulation/distribution index", "oscillator", "Random Walk Index", "conversion of units of temperature" ], "aliasCount": 58, "merged": 58, "knownIn": 59, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.calculation", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q622821", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q622821", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T21:52:35Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q622821", "registryId": "vr.tr.calculation", "name": "calculation", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.ACT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q622821/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.calculation", "name": "calculation", "purpose": "Let an agent perform and explain calculations, choose appropriate methods and precision, check results, and describe calculation history and tools.", "definition": "A deliberate process of determining a result from given data by arithmetic, algebraic or algorithmic steps, performed mentally, on paper, with instruments or by computers, from back-of-the-envelope estimates and written calculation to precomputation, cryptographic processing and numerical methods; calculation is distinct from measurement and from guessing and is governed by rules of precision and error.", "what_it_is_for": "Determining results by rule-governed steps.", "affordances": [ "perform and explain calculations", "choose methods and precision", "check and verify results", "describe tools and history" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Rule-governed", "Data to result", "Precision-aware", "Manual or machine" ], "appearance": "Not physical; steps and results, on paper or in machines.", "visual_identification": [ "Rule-governed steps to a result", "From estimate to exact", "Measurement observes rather than computes" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "mental and estimation calculation", "written calculation", "instrument and calculator use", "computer and numerical calculation", "precomputation and cryptographic processing" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "planned process", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "constant", "why": "fixed inputs" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "billion", "why": "large number handling" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "dissociation constant", "why": "an example of applied calculation" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Rounding and significant figure conventions", "Floating point standards such as IEEE 754", "Verification practices in engineering" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Arithmetic and rounding errors", "Floating point pitfalls such as flush to zero", "Garbage in, garbage out" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "do", "name": "Do", "description": "Performing a calculation.", "rationale": "Method.", "layers": [ { "id": "method", "name": "Method", "description": "Choosing a method.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-finding", "name": "Method", "description": "Method.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which method suits this calculation, from estimate to exact, and what precision is needed?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "How should the steps be laid out?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "check", "name": "Check", "description": "Checking results.", "findings": [ { "id": "check-finding", "name": "Check", "description": "Checking.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can the result be checked by estimation, inverse operations or independent methods?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "What error bounds apply?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "estimate", "name": "Estimate", "description": "Quick calculation.", "rationale": "Approximation.", "layers": [ { "id": "envelope", "name": "Envelope", "description": "Back-of-the-envelope.", "findings": [ { "id": "envelope-finding", "name": "Envelope", "description": "Estimation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can a back-of-the-envelope estimate be made for this question, and how reliable is it?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which approximations are acceptable?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mental", "name": "Mental", "description": "Mental arithmetic.", "findings": [ { "id": "mental-finding", "name": "Mental", "description": "Mental arithmetic.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which mental arithmetic techniques help here?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "How can they be practised?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "machine", "name": "Machine", "description": "Computer calculation.", "rationale": "Numerics.", "layers": [ { "id": "floating", "name": "Floating", "description": "Floating point.", "findings": [ { "id": "floating-finding", "name": "Floating", "description": "Floating point.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do floating point representation, rounding and flush-to-zero affect this calculation?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "How can numerical error be controlled?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "precompute", "name": "Precompute", "description": "Precomputation and crypto.", "findings": [ { "id": "precompute-finding", "name": "Precompute", "description": "Precomputation.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are precomputation and cryptographic data processing, and when are they used?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific algorithm?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "History and teaching.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History of calculation.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did calculation develop, from counting boards and written algorithms to calculators and computers?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What was casting lots as a decision method?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can calculation skills and estimation be taught?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should numerical analysis be a separate entry?", "How should calculator tools be linked?", "How should error conventions be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a calculation, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent perform and explain calculations, choose appropriate methods and precision, check results, and describe calculation history and tools.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: cryptographic data processing, casting lots, precomputation, flush to zero, written calculation, back-of-the-envelope calculation, finger-counting, Chisanbop, band structure calculation, computer arithmetic, computation, calculating.", "58 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 59 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 calculation, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "cryptographic data processing", "casting lots", "precomputation", "flush to zero", "written calculation", "back-of-the-envelope calculation", "finger-counting", "Chisanbop", "band structure calculation", "computer arithmetic", "computation", "calculating" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 59 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 58 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 calculation from another, and a calculation 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 calculation, 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 calculation, 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 calculation 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 calculation, 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 calculation, 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 calculation 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 calculation 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 calculation, 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 calculation, 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 calculation 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 calculation from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a calculation, 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 calculation, 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 calculation 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 calculation 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 calculation between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a calculation, 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 calculation, 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 calculation 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 calculation, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a calculation 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 calculation, 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 calculation, 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 calculation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a calculation proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a calculation, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a calculation and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a calculation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a calculation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a calculation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a calculation consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a calculation takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a calculation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a calculation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a calculation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What calculation is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of calculation are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is calculation operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of calculation and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of calculation?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as calculation?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a calculation 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 calculation and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a calculation, 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 calculation, 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 calculation 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 calculation is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a calculation, 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 calculation, 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 calculation 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 } } } }