{ "model": { "rank": 3169, "code": "thing-q80793", "model_id": "vr.tr.sundial", "name": "sundial", "purpose": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a sundial, assess whether its solar indication is meaningful in its present setting, and decide how it may be read, positioned, maintained or conserved.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Physical world and living systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "PHY", "domain": "PHY.OBJ", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q80793/", "tier": 2, "score": 90, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Scaphe", "horizontal sundial", "Polar sundial", "Vertical sundial", "astronomical rings", "Shepherd dial", "nodus-based sundial", "equatorial sundial", "multiface sundial", "Declining sundial", "West-facing sundial", "East-facing sundial", "analemmatic sundial", "Digital sundial", "Navicula de Venetiis", "Ancient Roman sundials", "Sechat", "MarsDial", "Bifilar sundial", "Canonical sundial", "noon mark", "moondial", "noon marks of Quetelet" ], "aliasCount": 23, "merged": 23, "knownIn": 90, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q80793", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80793", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-07T15:14:19Z", "providers": [ "Codex", "Grok" ], "missingProviders": [], "pass": 2, "cost": { "grok": { "usd": 0.0120156, "turns": 1, "seconds": 136.4, "error": null }, "codex": { "seconds": 71.9, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.3\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a07c6a-c752-7723-9d31-97215f2df416\n--------\nuser\nYou are drafting a Vercy meta-model for one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: sundial\nRegistry id: vr.tr.sundial\nPlane / domain: PHY / PHY.OBJ\nRegistry definition: (none recorded)\nNames folded into this entry: (none)\n\nA Vercy m" } } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q80793", "registryId": "vr.tr.sundial", "name": "sundial", "version": "0.1.0-research.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "PHY.OBJ" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q80793/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.sundial", "name": "sundial", "purpose": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a sundial, assess whether its solar indication is meaningful in its present setting, and decide how it may be read, positioned, maintained or conserved.", "definition": "A sundial is a solar timepiece that indicates local apparent solar time from the Sun's apparent diurnal motion by projecting the shadow (or a concentrated light spot) of a gnomon onto a receiving surface whose hour lines are constructed for a stated latitude, surface orientation, and time system, the style of a polar gnomon being parallel to Earth's axis.", "scope_statement": "This model owns the sundial as a physical solar time-indicating instrument, including its indicating geometry, markings, intended installation, reading conventions, condition and constraints on intervention.", "in_scope": [ "The physical features that turn sunlight into a readable time indication", "Dial geometry, time markings and relationships between indicating components", "Compatibility with the intended location, orientation and operating position", "Interpretation of the indication and any conversion to another time convention", "Functional condition, reading limitations and permitted adjustments" ], "out_of_scope": [ "The Sun and Earth's motion as independent astronomical models", "Regional time-zone rules and civil-time administration", "The supporting building, garden or monument beyond its interface with the sundial", "Independent watches, clocks and electronic solar sensors", "General ownership, collection management and heritage designation records" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Its intended time indication depends on the position of direct sunlight, usually through a cast shadow or projected light feature, rather than an independently running clock mechanism.", "An identifiable edge, point, aperture or other optical feature has a designed relationship with a time scale or documented reading procedure; an incidental shadow alone is insufficient.", "Its markings or documented procedure support determining time within a day; a device that only marks a season or a single solar event needs a boundary decision.", "A decorative object resembling a sundial must be distinguishable from a working instrument through evidence that its geometry, scale and intended setting correspond." ], "characteristics": [ { "name": "Solar indication mechanism", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Shadow edge; shadow point; projected light spot; other documented mechanism; undetermined", "why_it_matters": "Identifies which visible feature carries the reading and which components must remain correctly related." }, { "name": "Dial configuration", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Horizontal; vertical; equatorial; polar; analemmatic; other documented configuration; undetermined", "why_it_matters": "Determines which geometry and positioning checks apply." }, { "name": "Indicating-element geometry", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "Relevant lengths in mm and angles in degrees, with reference points and uncertainty", "why_it_matters": "Allows displacement, bending or incompatible replacement to be evaluated against the design." }, { "name": "Design location or latitude range", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Referenced intended site or supported latitude range, with evidence", "why_it_matters": "A dial may be correct for one location or adjustment range and misleading elsewhere." }, { "name": "Installed orientation", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "Azimuth relative to true north and relevant surface or axis inclinations in degrees", "why_it_matters": "Supports checking whether the installation matches the dial's design." }, { "name": "Indicated time convention", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Local apparent solar time; another documented hour system or corrected convention; undetermined", "why_it_matters": "Prevents a valid solar reading from being mistaken for an incorrect civil-time reading." }, { "name": "Operating availability", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Readable now; obstructed sunlight; outside designed reading range; unsuitable setup; undetermined", "why_it_matters": "Separates temporary inability to read the dial from physical failure." }, { "name": "Reading residual", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "Signed difference in minutes against a reference expressed in the same time convention, with observation date and uncertainty", "why_it_matters": "Makes performance assessment meaningful without mixing solar and civil time." }, { "name": "Functional integrity", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Intact; displaced indicating element; illegible scale; unstable mounting; incomplete; other observed impairment", "why_it_matters": "Connects physical condition to whether readings or adjustments are defensible." } ], "affordances": [ "Identify the intended shadow or light feature and read it against the appropriate scale.", "Check whether a proposed site and orientation suit the dial's documented design.", "Set up or adjust movable components within documented limits.", "Compare observed indications with a suitable reference and investigate discrepancies.", "Translate a reading into a requested time convention when the required inputs are known.", "Plan cleaning, repair or conservation while preserving time-bearing geometry and markings." ] }, "sources": [ { "id": "waugh-1973", "title": "Sundials: Their Theory and Construction - Albert E. Waugh, Dover Publications", "url": "", "what_it_supports": "Layout geometry by dial type, polar-style alignment, latitude and declination of the receiving surface, and the equation of time as a correction from apparent to mean solar time." }, { "id": "rohr-dover", "title": "Sundials: History, Theory, and Practice - René R. J. Rohr, Dover Publications (English translation of Les cadrans solaires)", "url": "", "what_it_supports": "Historical types (horizontal, vertical, equatorial, polar, analemmatic, portable, scaphe, armillary), siting practice, and the distinction from noon-only meridian instruments." }, { "id": "britannica-sundial", "title": "Sundial - Encyclopædia Britannica", "url": "https://www.britannica.com/technology/sundial", "what_it_supports": "Core definition as a solar time indicator, principal geometric classes, and the dependence of hour-line construction on latitude.", "url_status": "blocked" }, { "id": "wikidata-q80793", "title": "sundial (Q80793) - Wikidata", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80793", "what_it_supports": "Stable identifier and crosswalks to library and heritage vocabularies for the artefact class.", "url_status": "live" } ], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "solar-indication-identity", "name": "Solar indication and identity", "description": "Establishes how this object uses sunlight to indicate time and whether that function is substantiated.", "rationale": "A sundial cannot be recognised reliably from its silhouette or numerals alone.", "layers": [ { "id": "indicating-mechanism", "name": "Indicating mechanism", "description": "Identifies the physical feature that produces the readable solar indication.", "findings": [ { "id": "time-bearing-feature", "name": "Time-bearing feature", "description": "Record the particular shadow edge, point or light feature intended to intersect or relate to the scale.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which component produces the indication, and exactly which part of its shadow or light pattern is read?", "kind": "definition", "id": "time-bearing-feature-q01" }, { "text": "What instruction, drawing or observation establishes that this is the intended reading feature?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "time-bearing-feature-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "functional-classification", "name": "Functional classification", "description": "Distinguishes a time-indicating instrument from a resemblance, remnant or neighbouring solar device.", "findings": [ { "id": "sundial-status", "name": "Sundial status", "description": "Record whether the object is a supported functional design, an incomplete sundial or an object whose time-indicating role remains unverified.", "questions": [ { "text": "What evidence connects its geometry and markings to a method for determining time within a day?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "sundial-status-q01" }, { "text": "Does it provide a time scale or reading procedure, or only decoration, a seasonal indication or a single solar-event marker?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "sundial-status-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "dial-geometry-and-scale", "name": "Dial geometry and scale", "description": "Captures the relationships between the indicating element, receiving surface and time markings.", "rationale": "Correct appearance does not establish correct geometry, and small physical changes can alter the indication.", "layers": [ { "id": "geometric-relationships", "name": "Geometric relationships", "description": "Records the dimensions and alignments that determine where the solar indication falls.", "findings": [ { "id": "design-critical-geometry", "name": "Design-critical geometry", "description": "Identify the relevant axes, points, surfaces and distances for this particular dial configuration.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which reference points, angles and distances define the relationship between the indicating element and the receiving surface?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "design-critical-geometry-q01" }, { "text": "Which drawing, construction record or geometric assessment supplies the expected relationships?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "design-critical-geometry-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "scale-interpretation", "name": "Scale interpretation", "description": "Establishes what the lines, numerals, curves and auxiliary marks mean.", "findings": [ { "id": "marking-semantics", "name": "Marking semantics", "description": "Associate readable markings with their documented time, date or setup roles without assuming all marks are hour lines.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which marks indicate hours or subdivisions, and which indicate dates, setup positions or other quantities?", "kind": "definition", "id": "marking-semantics-q01" }, { "text": "What reading interval can the surviving markings and observed indication width support?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "marking-semantics-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "site-and-operating-setup", "name": "Site and operating setup", "description": "Relates the dial's design to its actual location, orientation and required setup.", "rationale": "An intact sundial may give misleading readings when moved, misaligned or set up incorrectly.", "layers": [ { "id": "location-and-alignment", "name": "Location and alignment", "description": "Checks compatibility between the design assumptions and the installed position.", "findings": [ { "id": "installation-compatibility", "name": "Installation compatibility", "description": "Record intended and actual location and orientation, including the reference used to measure direction.", "questions": [ { "text": "For what location or latitude range was this dial designed, and where is it currently used?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "installation-compatibility-q01" }, { "text": "How do its measured orientation and inclination compare with the requirements of its design?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "installation-compatibility-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "setup-and-sun-access", "name": "Setup and sun access", "description": "Identifies operating steps and environmental limits on obtaining an indication.", "findings": [ { "id": "usable-operating-position", "name": "Usable operating position", "description": "Record required movements or observer positions and distinguish designed limits from obstruction.", "questions": [ { "text": "Must an element or the observer be positioned for the date, latitude or operating mode before a reading is taken?", "kind": "action", "id": "usable-operating-position-q01" }, { "text": "During which intended reading periods is direct sunlight blocked or the indication outside the usable surface?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "usable-operating-position-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-reading-and-validation", "name": "Time reading and validation", "description": "Makes observations interpretable and comparisons with reference time defensible.", "rationale": "Solar indications and clock readings cannot be judged against each other until their conventions and corrections are understood.", "layers": [ { "id": "time-convention", "name": "Time convention", "description": "Identifies the meaning of the displayed hours and the procedure for any requested conversion.", "findings": [ { "id": "reading-to-requested-time", "name": "Reading to requested time", "description": "Record the dial's time convention and any documented corrections already incorporated into its design or reading instructions.", "questions": [ { "text": "What time convention and hour-numbering system does this scale express?", "kind": "definition", "id": "reading-to-requested-time-q01" }, { "text": "Which date-dependent, longitude or civil-time adjustments are needed for the requested output, and which are already incorporated?", "kind": "action", "id": "reading-to-requested-time-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "observational-validation", "name": "Observational validation", "description": "Assesses readings under recorded conditions against a comparable reference.", "findings": [ { "id": "reading-error-and-confidence", "name": "Reading error and confidence", "description": "Record observed discrepancies and uncertainty without treating a single mismatch as proof of a defective dial.", "questions": [ { "text": "What residuals are observed at recorded dates and times after the dial and reference are expressed in the same convention?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "reading-error-and-confidence-q01" }, { "text": "What checks would distinguish alignment or geometry errors from setup mistakes, ambiguous shadows or conversion errors?", "kind": "action", "id": "reading-error-and-confidence-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "functional-condition-and-intervention", "name": "Functional condition and intervention", "description": "Connects deterioration and proposed work to solar readability, geometry and retained historical evidence.", "rationale": "Repair or cosmetic improvement can change the very features needed to read and authenticate a sundial.", "layers": [ { "id": "condition-effects", "name": "Condition effects", "description": "Evaluates damage according to its effect on the indication and its interpretation.", "findings": [ { "id": "function-affecting-change", "name": "Function-affecting change", "description": "Record deformation, movement, surface loss or marking loss and the specific reading consequence of each.", "questions": [ { "text": "Are the indicating element and dial surface secure, and what displacement or deformation can be measured?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "function-affecting-change-q01" }, { "text": "Which missing or obscured markings prevent a reading or make more than one interpretation plausible?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "function-affecting-change-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "intervention-limits", "name": "Intervention limits", "description": "Determines what may be adjusted or restored and how the outcome will be checked.", "findings": [ { "id": "justified-adjustment-or-repair", "name": "Justified adjustment or repair", "description": "Tie proposed interventions to documented design evidence, authority to act and preservation of significant geometry and markings.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which adjustments, cleaning methods or replacements are supported by the construction evidence and applicable conservation constraints?", "kind": "action", "id": "justified-adjustment-or-repair-q01" }, { "text": "What geometry records and repeat solar observations are required before and after intervention to verify the result?", "kind": "action", "id": "justified-adjustment-or-repair-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence-and-external-alignment", "name": "Evidence and external alignment", "description": "What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.", "rationale": "A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.", "layers": [ { "id": "reported-evidence", "name": "Reported evidence", "description": "Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds", "name": "Kinds and varieties", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "Horizontal sundial", "Vertical sundial (direct-south or north, declining, reclining)", "Equatorial (equinoctial) sundial", "Polar sundial", "Analemmatic sundial", "Portable altitude and combination dials (shepherd's/pillar, ring, diptych)", "Armillary-sphere sundial", "Scaphe (hemispherical bowl) sundial" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds-q01", "text": "Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of sundial this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-identifiers", "name": "Identifiers and schemes", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "scheme": "Wikidata", "value_or_pattern": "Q80793", "note": "Item for the artefact class sundial." }, { "scheme": "LCSH", "value_or_pattern": "Sundials", "note": "Library of Congress Subject Heading used in catalogue records." }, { "scheme": "Getty AAT", "value_or_pattern": "sundials", "note": "Art & Architecture Thesaurus object facet; commonly mapped from museum cataloguing of historic dials." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-identifiers-q01", "text": "Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of sundial this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation", "name": "Standards and regulation", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "No dedicated ISO or IEC product standard governs sundials as a manufactured class; construction practice is set by gnomonics treatises and by society guidance rather than a single code.", "British Sundial Society: restoration and recording practice for historic dials (society guidance, not statute).", "Civil time-zone and summer-time law (for example EU Directive 2000/84/EC on summer-time arrangements, and national time acts) governs the offset between a sundial's apparent solar reading and legal clock time.", "Listed-building and movable-heritage regimes (national listing, church faculty, museum conservation codes) apply to historic stone, painted, and brass dials as artefacts, not as time-signal devices." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation-q01", "text": "Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of sundial this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-real-world-use", "name": "Real-world use", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "Parish church and house walls: painted or inscribed vertical dials giving local apparent hours to people in the yard or street.", "Garden and terrace furniture: mass-produced horizontal brass dials on pedestals, often still laid out for a nominal latitude and local apparent time.", "Cathedral and observatory floors: meridian lines used historically to find local noon and to check clocks (for example Italian linea meridiana installations).", "Portable diptych and ring dials carried by travellers from the 16th-18th centuries to estimate hours without a mechanical watch.", "Teaching and public science: demonstrations of latitude, Earth's axial tilt, and the equation of time.", "Commemorative public art: large contemporary sundials in parks and campuses, usually labelled with a civil-time caveat." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-real-world-use-q01", "text": "Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of sundial this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-measurements", "name": "Typical measurements", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "quantity": "Site geographic latitude (sets hour-line spacing and style altitude on a horizontal dial)", "typical_range": "about 0 to 66 for practical year-round use; polar regions are seasonal or unusable", "unit": "degree" }, { "quantity": "Style (gnomon) polar altitude", "typical_range": "equal to site latitude on a horizontal dial; 0-90 depending on type", "unit": "degree" }, { "quantity": "Equation of time (apparent minus mean solar time)", "typical_range": "about −14 to +16 over the year", "unit": "minute" }, { "quantity": "Longitude correction from the zone meridian", "typical_range": "4 minutes of time per degree of longitude; typically 0-30 minutes within a civil zone", "unit": "minute" }, { "quantity": "Receiving-surface size (garden to public monument)", "typical_range": "about 0.15-2 for ordinary dials; monumental faces several metres", "unit": "metre" }, { "quantity": "Wall declination of a vertical dial (azimuth of the face from true south, northern hemisphere)", "typical_range": "−90 to +90", "unit": "degree" } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-measurements-q01", "text": "Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of sundial this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards", "name": "Failure modes and hazards", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "Style not parallel to the polar axis, or hour lines computed for the wrong latitude: systematic, season-dependent hour error.", "Magnetic compass used to orient the noon line without correcting magnetic declination: whole dial rotated, all hours shifted.", "Equation of time and longitude omitted when comparing with clocks: disagreement commonly 10-30 minutes, larger under daylight saving.", "Displaced, bent, or missing gnomon on stone and brass dials after weathering, vandalism, or unskilled repair.", "Unreadable under cloud, in the building's own shade, or during polar night; winter sun too low on north-facing or high-latitude walls.", "Public confusion when a decorative dial is read as civil time.", "Focused sunlight from large glass or metal meridian/noon-cannon setups can concentrate heat; historic noon guns add an obvious blast hazard." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01", "text": "Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of sundial this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-regional-variation", "name": "Regional variation", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "Northern versus southern hemisphere: hour numerals run the other way around the plate and the style points to the elevated celestial pole.", "Britain and much of northern Europe: vertical south dials on churches; earlier medieval scratch dials or Mass clocks with few hour marks.", "Italy: long indoor cathedral meridian lines used as noon instruments and calendar scales, more prominent than garden horizontals.", "Islamic practice: dials and related instruments marked for prayer times (especially zuhr and asr) rather than equal civil hours alone.", "Chinese tradition: equatorial dials are historically prominent among official timepieces.", "German-speaking building fronts: declining vertical dials with mottoes, laid out for the wall's actual azimuth." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-regional-variation-q01", "text": "Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of sundial this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-neighbours", "name": "Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "name": "Meridian line / noon mark", "difference": "A meridian instrument finds local apparent noon (and often the date) on a north-south line only; a sundial has a fan of hour lines for other hours of the day." }, { "name": "Heliochronometer", "difference": "A precision equatorial sundial with a sighting alidade and, typically, a mechanical equation-of-time cam so that it can be set to mean time; an ordinary sundial has a fixed gnomon and uncorrected hour lines." }, { "name": "Astrolabe", "difference": "An astrolabe is a stereographic calculating instrument for many astronomical problems and can be used as a time-finder; it is not a fixed shadow-casting hour-line plate." }, { "name": "Nocturnal", "difference": "A nocturnal tells time from the rotation of circumpolar stars at night; a sundial requires the Sun." }, { "name": "Shadow-stick seasonal gnomon (calendar)", "difference": "A calendar gnomon uses noon shadow length (solar altitude) to mark solstices and dates; a polar-style sundial uses shadow direction (hour angle) to mark hours." }, { "name": "Mechanical or electronic clock", "difference": "Clocks keep mean or atomic time on a civil scale; a sundial keeps apparent solar time unless equation-of-time and zone offsets are applied." }, { "name": "Sun compass", "difference": "A sun compass uses the Sun to find azimuth for navigation; it is not laid out to read civil or solar hours on a dial face." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-neighbours-q01", "text": "Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of sundial this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Where should the registry boundary fall for noon-only meridian instruments, solar calendar markers and hybrid devices that also function as sundials?", "Should deliberately nonfunctional decorative sundials belong to this entry, and what evidence should distinguish them from damaged working instruments?", "Which geometry and setup requirements need configuration-specific extensions for portable, analemmatic, reflecting or other specialised sundials?", "What observation coverage and uncertainty criteria are sufficient to assign a defensible functional-performance state?", "How should undocumented historic hour systems, reconstructed markings and disputed restorations be represented without implying that their interpretation is settled?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 11, "findings": 18, "questions": 28 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "device, machine or tool", "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 sundial, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a sundial, assess whether its solar indication is meaningful in its present setting, and decide how it may be read, positioned, maintained or conserved.", "characteristics": { "substance": "material", "origin": "manufactured", "agency": "inert", "mobility": "varies" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Scaphe, horizontal sundial, Polar sundial, Vertical sundial, astronomical rings, Shepherd dial, nodus-based sundial, equatorial sundial, multiface sundial, Declining sundial, West-facing sundial, East-facing sundial.", "23 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 90 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 sundial, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "matter you can touch", "physicalCharacter": [ "Mobility varies between examples.", "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": [ "Recognised by form, by the arrangement of its controls, and by markings - a plate, a model number, a certification mark. Form alone rarely separates two models that do very different things." ], "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": [ "Scaphe", "horizontal sundial", "Polar sundial", "Vertical sundial", "astronomical rings", "Shepherd dial", "nodus-based sundial", "equatorial sundial", "multiface sundial", "Declining sundial", "West-facing sundial", "East-facing sundial" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 90 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 23 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 sundial from another, and a sundial 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 sundial, 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 sundial, 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 sundial 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 sundial, 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 sundial, 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 sundial 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 sundial 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 sundial, 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 sundial, 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 sundial 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 sundial from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a sundial, 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 sundial, 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 sundial is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "form-and-composition", "name": "Form, composition and condition", "description": "What a sundial is made of, what shape and size it takes, and what state it is in.", "rationale": "A physical thing can be measured, and a model that cannot record its measurements cannot support any decision that depends on them.", "layers": [ { "id": "form-and-dimensions", "name": "Form and dimensions", "description": "Shape, size, mass and the ranges these take across examples.", "findings": [ { "id": "measurable-dimensions", "name": "Measurable dimensions and their units", "description": "The quantities worth recording and the units they are recorded in.", "questions": [ { "id": "measurable-dimensions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the dimensions of a sundial, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "measurable-dimensions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the dimensions of a sundial, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "measurable-dimensions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the dimensions of a sundial is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "material-and-composition", "name": "Material and composition", "description": "Materials, parts and how they are put together.", "findings": [ { "id": "parts-and-materials", "name": "Parts and materials", "description": "What a sundial is built from and which parts are replaceable.", "questions": [ { "id": "parts-and-materials-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the composition of a sundial, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "parts-and-materials-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the composition of a sundial, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "parts-and-materials-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the composition of a sundial is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "condition-and-integrity", "name": "Condition and integrity", "description": "Wear, damage, health and the difference between working and broken.", "findings": [ { "id": "condition-assessment", "name": "Condition, damage and health", "description": "How the condition of a sundial is judged and by whom.", "questions": [ { "id": "condition-assessment-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the condition of a sundial, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "condition-assessment-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the condition of a sundial, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "condition-assessment-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the condition of a sundial 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 sundial is, how it got there and where it may go (varies).", "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 sundial is, and what that position is measured against.", "questions": [ { "id": "position-and-frame-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the location of a sundial, 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 sundial, 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 sundial 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 sundial is carried, installed or relocated.", "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 sundial, 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 sundial, 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 sundial 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 sundial 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 sundial between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a sundial, 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 sundial, 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 sundial 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 sundial, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a sundial 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 sundial, 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 sundial, 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 sundial is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "function-and-principle", "name": "Function and operating principle", "description": "What sundial is for and how it achieves it.", "rationale": "Two devices with the same name can work on different principles, and the principle is what predicts failure and constrains use.", "layers": [ { "id": "intended-function", "name": "Intended function", "description": "The job it does, and the jobs it is used for anyway.", "findings": [ { "id": "function-record", "name": "Function, principle and variants", "description": "What it does, how, and which variants do it differently.", "questions": [ { "id": "function-record-q01", "text": "What function does sundial perform, on what operating principle, and which variants differ in that principle?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "function-record-q02", "text": "What use falls outside the intended function but happens in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "capacity-and-rating", "name": "Capacity and rating", "description": "The numbers that say what it can do and where it stops.", "findings": [ { "id": "ratings", "name": "Ratings and their conditions", "description": "Rated capacity, power, throughput and the conditions each assumes.", "questions": [ { "id": "ratings-q01", "text": "What ratings characterise sundial, in what units, and under what stated conditions?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "ratings-q02", "text": "What happens beyond the rating - degradation, refusal, damage - and how is that detected?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "operation-and-state", "name": "Operation, controls and state", "description": "How sundial is operated and what state it is in right now.", "rationale": "An agent acting on a device needs its current state and the controls that change it, not just its specification.", "layers": [ { "id": "controls-and-modes", "name": "Controls and modes", "description": "What can be set, what that changes, and what is interlocked.", "findings": [ { "id": "control-surface", "name": "Control surface and interlocks", "description": "The settings available and the conditions that block them.", "questions": [ { "id": "control-surface-q01", "text": "What controls and modes does sundial have, and what does each change?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "control-surface-q02", "text": "Which actions are interlocked or forbidden in which state, and what must be true before acting?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "condition-and-maintenance", "name": "Condition and maintenance", "description": "Wear, service intervals, consumables and the line between working and broken.", "findings": [ { "id": "service-record", "name": "Condition, service and consumables", "description": "What is consumed, what is serviced, and how condition is judged.", "questions": [ { "id": "service-record-q01", "text": "What consumables and service does sundial need, at what interval, and on whose authority?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "service-record-q02", "text": "What evidence separates a unit that is working from one that is out of service?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "kind-model-unit", "name": "Kind, model and unit", "description": "Whether a claim about sundial is about the kind, a product line, or one physical unit.", "rationale": "This is the boundary most often got wrong for made things, and getting it wrong mixes a catalogue entry with the machine in the yard.", "layers": [ { "id": "level-of-reference", "name": "Level of reference", "description": "The three levels and what belongs at each.", "findings": [ { "id": "level-rules", "name": "What belongs to kind, model and unit", "description": "Which properties are shared by all of them and which are not.", "questions": [ { "id": "level-rules-q01", "text": "Which facts about sundial hold for every one of them, which for a model, and which only for one unit?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "level-rules-q02", "text": "What identifies an individual unit, and what should an agent do when it has only the kind?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "standards-and-conformity", "name": "Standards and conformity", "description": "The standards a working example must meet and who attests it.", "findings": [ { "id": "conformity", "name": "Standards, marks and attestation", "description": "Which standard applies, who certifies, and what the mark means.", "questions": [ { "id": "conformity-q01", "text": "Which standards govern sundial, issued by whom, and what does conformity actually assert?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "conformity-q02", "text": "What may an agent conclude from a certification mark, and what may it not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a sundial 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 sundial and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a sundial, 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 sundial, 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 sundial 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 sundial is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a sundial, 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 sundial, 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 sundial is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 8, "layers": 17, "findings": 19, "questions": 51 } } } }