{ "model": { "rank": 4105, "code": "thing-q795052", "model_id": "vr.tr.individual", "name": "individual", "purpose": "Let an agent handle the individual as a concept of particularity, distinguish an individual from a kind, a group and a role, explain its uses in law, biology, logic and data modelling, and route questions about specific individuals or persons to their own entries.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.PER", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q795052/", "tier": 2, "score": 78, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [], "aliasCount": 0, "merged": 0, "knownIn": 78, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.individual", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q795052", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q795052", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T20:57:03Z", "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": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q795052", "registryId": "vr.tr.individual", "name": "individual", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.PER" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q795052/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.individual", "name": "individual", "purpose": "Let an agent handle the individual as a concept of particularity, distinguish an individual from a kind, a group and a role, explain its uses in law, biology, logic and data modelling, and route questions about specific individuals or persons to their own entries.", "definition": "A single, distinct entity considered as one, in contrast to a group, class or collective: a person as a single human being, an organism as one member of a species, or any particular thing as opposed to the kind it belongs to; the concept underlies counting, identity, rights and the distinction between type and instance in logic and modelling.", "what_it_is_for": "Distinguishing one particular thing or being from kinds and groups.", "affordances": [ "explain the concept of individual versus kind", "explain uses in law, biology and modelling", "apply the type-instance distinction", "route questions about persons and specific individuals" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Particularity and distinctness", "Countable as one", "Bearer of identity over time", "Instance of a kind" ], "appearance": "Not visible as a concept; any single person, organism or thing.", "visual_identification": [ "One distinct entity", "Contrasted with class, group and collective", "Person, organism and instance are the specific senses" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "individual person", "individual organism", "individual object or instance", "legal individual or natural person", "individual in statistics as a unit of observation", "individual in philosophy and individuation" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "being", "why": "a particular entity" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "group", "why": "a collective" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "kind", "why": "the type it belongs to" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "natural person", "why": "the legal sense" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Legal definitions of natural person and individual in statutes", "Data protection definitions of an identifiable individual", "Statistical standards for units of observation" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Confusing an individual with its kind or group", "Treating roles or organisations as individuals", "Privacy issues when identifying individuals" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "What an individual is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What makes something an individual, and how does it differ from a kind or a group?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about the concept or about a specific person or organism?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "identity", "name": "Identity", "description": "Identity over time.", "findings": [ { "id": "identity-finding", "name": "Identity", "description": "Identity.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does an individual keep its identity over time and change, as treated in philosophy?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits personal identity?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "fields", "name": "Fields", "description": "Uses across fields.", "rationale": "Application.", "layers": [ { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Law and rights.", "findings": [ { "id": "law-finding", "name": "Law", "description": "Law.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do law and data protection define an individual, and what rights attach?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits natural person?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "biology", "name": "Biology", "description": "Biological individuals.", "findings": [ { "id": "biology-finding", "name": "Biology", "description": "Biology.", "questions": [ { "text": "What counts as an individual organism, including colonies and clones?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits organism?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "model", "name": "Model", "description": "Type and instance.", "rationale": "Modelling.", "layers": [ { "id": "instance", "name": "Instance", "description": "Instances in modelling.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-finding", "name": "Instance", "description": "Instance.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do data models and logic distinguish types from instances?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits ontology modelling?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "statistics", "name": "Statistics", "description": "Units of observation.", "findings": [ { "id": "statistics-finding", "name": "Statistics", "description": "Statistics.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are individuals treated as units in statistics and surveys?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits statistical units?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "study", "name": "Study", "description": "Philosophy and society.", "rationale": "Study.", "layers": [ { "id": "philosophy", "name": "Philosophy", "description": "Individuation.", "findings": [ { "id": "philosophy-finding", "name": "Philosophy", "description": "Philosophy.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do philosophers say about individuation and individuals, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "society", "name": "Society", "description": "Individualism.", "findings": [ { "id": "society-finding", "name": "Society", "description": "Society.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do societies weigh individual and collective, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should this be a concept entry distinct from person?", "How should legal definitions be linked?", "How should individuation debates be represented?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "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 individual, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent handle the individual as a concept of particularity, distinguish an individual from a kind, a group and a role, explain its uses in law, biology, logic and data modelling, and route questions about specific individuals or persons to their own entries.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "natural", "agency": "autonomous", "mobility": "self-moving" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Described in 78 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 individual, 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": [], "standing": "Described in 78 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one individual from another, and a individual 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 individual, 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 individual, 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 individual 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 individual, 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 individual, 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 individual 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 individual 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 individual, 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 individual, 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 individual 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 individual from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a individual, 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 individual, 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 individual 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 individual 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 individual is, and what that position is measured against.", "questions": [ { "id": "position-and-frame-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the location of a individual, 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 individual, 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 individual 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 individual 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 individual, 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 individual, 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 individual 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 individual 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 individual between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a individual, 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 individual, 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 individual 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 individual, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a individual 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 individual, 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 individual, 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 individual 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 individual.", "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 individual and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a individual, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a individual, 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 individual, 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 individual 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 individual and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a individual sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a individual, 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 individual, 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 individual 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 individual.", "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 individual 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 individual, 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 individual 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 individual, 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 individual, 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 individual 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 individual and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a individual, 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 individual, 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 individual 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 individual is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a individual, 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 individual, 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 individual 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 } } } }