COSMO ontology, Version 0.52-695. Last edit 20080622 by Patrick Cassidy Has 21 top-level classes under 'Thing' Uses elements of the OpenCyc OWL version 0.78, SUMO, BFO and DOLCE ontologies, as well as elements created specifically for COSMO. Parts of COSMO are adopted or closely aligned with elements of other public ontologies such as OpenCyc, SUMO, and BFO. From the documentation of those ontologies, they are freely usable by the public, though they remain copyrighted by their originators (more detail below). No copyright restrictions are attached to materials added in the COSMO project, therefore the only copyright restrictions for use of this ontology are those placed by the developers of the OpenCyc, SUMO, and BFO. Relation of COSMO to other ontologies: The COSMO ontology has a structure and basic viewpoint that differs in some significant parts from that of the ontologies from which it has adopted materials, and the main parts of the hierarchical structure and relations are not significantly derived from any of the referenced ontologies. Most basically, the representations were intended to adhere as closely as popssible to linguistic intuitions about the meaning and usage of English terms, while specifying the meanings in a logically precise manner. Every element added to COSMO is individually evaluated for its utility and validity within the conceptual structure of the COSMO ontology, and is not derived or adopted solely or mainly on the basis of the appearance of a similar concept in another ontology. Certain individual subtype relations are similar to those in OpenCyc or SUMO; but because the basic hierarchical structure of COSMO differs from the other ontologies, logical inference using these relations will arrive at conclusions that cannot be aligned directly with either OpenCyc or SUMO. No mapping between COSMO and these other ontologies is likely to enable accurate inference. The documentation derived from OpenCyc and SUMO is provided as a means to reference similar concepts in those other ontologies, and to explain similarities and differences, for the convenience of those who are familiar with those ontologies. Contents derived from OpenCyc and SUMO are copyrighted and made freely available for public use under the terms found in the documentation for those works (see below). Materials added specifically for the COSMO project are not copyrighted. The contents derived from SUMO are copyrighted by the IEEE and made freely available for public use. For more detail see: see http://www.ontologyportal.org A description of the SUMO project can be found in: Niles, I., and Pease, A. 2001. Towards a Standard Upper Ontology. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS-2001), Chris Welty and Barry Smith, eds, Ogunquit, Maine, October 17-19, 2001. The Contents of the OpenCyc OWL version used in this project are found at: http://www.cyc.com/2004/06/04/cyc OpenCyc materials are copyrighted and licensed for free public use under the GNU 'LGPL' license. The Opencyc documentation reads: ************ OpenCyc copyright notice ****************** Copyright Information OpenCyc Knowledge Base Copyright 2001-2004 Cycorp, Inc., Austin, TX, USA. All rights reserved. OpenCyc Knowledge Server Copyright 2001-2004 Cycorp, Inc., Austin, TX, USA. All rights reserved. Other copyrights may be found in various files. The OpenCyc Knowledge Base The OpenCyc Knowledge Base consists of code, written in the declarative language CycL, that represents or supports the representation of facts and rules pertaining to consensus reality. OpenCyc is licensed using the GNU Lesser General Public License, whose text can also be found on this volume. The OpenCyc CycL code base is the "library" referred to in the LGPL license. The terms of this license equally apply to renamings and other logically equivalent reformulations of the Knowledge Base (or portions thereof) in any natural or formal language. See http://www.opencyc.org for more information. ************ OpenCyc copyright notice ****************** Definitions described as coming from the 'Random House Webster' (RHW) refer to the Electronic Dictionary 'Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary' on CD (2002) from Random House, Inc. and Multimedia 2000 Inc.(a paperback version is still available at: http://www.randomhouse.com/category/reference/ Some of the entries have annotation references to WordNet ('wordnet' and 'wnsense' relations). The WordNet version referenced is WordNet 2.1 (see http://wordnet.princeton.edu/). Because the WordNet hierarchy differs from that of COSMO, these pointers are only informative, and may not be useful for accurate automatic conversion of WordNet sense tags to the corresponding senses in COSMO, but the utility of this mapping needs to be investigated. InheritableType is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class which is used to identify those metatypes which, when specified as the parent Type for some class (Type) in the ontology, will also by implication be the parent Type for all subtypes of any Type explicitly designated as an instance of any subtype of 'InheritableType'. This is a primitive mechanism to permit translation of this ontology among various formats, while permitting the use of reasoning engines which require that arguments to relations, if restricted as to Type, be instances of some specified Type. There are some ontologies, such as SUMO, using first-order logic, which permit one to specify that an argument to a relation must be a *subtype* of some Type in the ontology, rather than an *instance* of some Type. OWL and some other reasoning engines do not permit that kind of restriction. For convenience, to allow this ontology to be used in multiple reasoning engines and to be automatically translated into multiple formats, this metatype is provided and so that one can avoid having to specify the metatype instance of every Type that is to be used as an argument to a relation. When using this ontology in an inference engine that requires explicit types, it will be necessary to add the InheritableType as a Type of each subtype of any Type that is specified to be an instance of such an inheritable type. That addition will have to be one in a preprocessing stage before using that inference engine. An axiom may be added to an ontology using FOL to specify that all subtypes of a Type ?T that is an instance of an InheritableType ?MT will also be instances of that InheritableType: (=> (and (isanInstanceOf ?T ?MT) (isaSubclassOf ?MT InheritableType)) (forall (?ST) (=> (isaSubclassOf ?ST ?T) (isanInstanceOf ?ST ?MT)))) This axiom will permit the ontologist to avoid specifying the metatype for every subtype of the root type of that Type tree, in those ontology implementations that can use FOL. AttributeValueType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that take subclasses of AttributeValue as their argument. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of Event as one of their arguments.. PhysicalObjectType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for physical objects and an argument restriction for various relations on Physical Object types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take an instance of Location as one of their arguments.. 'ProductType' is a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take an instance of Product (i.e. something for sale) as one of their arguments.. GroupType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for physical objects and an argument restriction for various relations on types of Groups (not just People, but any type of Group). This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. SubstanceType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for physical substances and an argument restriction for the hasComponentSubstance relation. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. The restriction on hasGrainDiameter for SubstanceTypes should require subclasses rather than instances of LengthMeasure - instances may have to be created as a workaround. ObjectType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for objects, whether abstract or physical, and an argument restriction for various relations on Object types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. COSMO note: used for both substances and Objects. @ToDo (v0.50) Probably should be distinguished. Cyc: A collection of collections, and a specialization of #$ManufacturedGoodsType. Instances of this collection are types of pharmaceutical products that may be prescribed by a medical professional. Note that this includes drugs -- specializations of #$DrugSubstance -- as well as pharmaceutical devices such as #$TestStrip or #$HearingAid-Prescription. #$PrescriptionDrugType and #$OverTheCounterDrugType are among the specializations of this collection. c0fdf171-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 Objects can be Physical or Abstract or Mental only PhysicalObjects have mass, and that is the defining characteristic of a PhysicalObject in COSMO. All Objects have at least one relation other than the type (isa) relation to some other entity that is not an Object. Almost all objects have an Attribute or AttributeValue. But the relation may be some other relation (e.g. to have a location, a composition, or to have proper parts). Thus a point can have Dimensionality (zero-dimensional), and will have a location, though the location may be in a poorly defined abstract space. For example, a character in an alphabet is an abstract object, which has at least one representation as a shaped physical object, and is an element of an Alphabet. This requirement for an Object to have some relation is not presently (v0.48) formalized in COSMO, as it is not needed for performance, only to clarify the meaning for the human users. 'Object' is a very primitive concept that cannot be defined, but can be comprehended only by the way this concept interacts with other concepts, and by its subclasses and instances. This Type is useful as an umbrella Type for various purposes,including relations on Events. NOTE that in COSMO an 'Object' is not necessarily 3D (as in an endurantist perspective) nor 4D (as in a perdurantist perspective. It can be use in syntactic constructions that appear to be 3D (such as when they are explicitly time-indexed), but when an object is also an instance of TimeSlice,it can be used in syntactic constructions that are typical of the 4D perspective, in which the time of a relation is not explicitly indexed. SetOrCollection[Cyc]%SetOrClass[SUMO] COSMO: SetOrType is the union of theTypes Set and Type. 'Type' in COSMO is used to refer to those intensionally-defined groupings called: Class in Ontolingua and Protege; Class in RDF and OWL; Class in SUMO; Collection in OpenCyc; Universal in DOLCE; Property in Ontology Works' IODE system * The Class 'Type' in COSMO is intended to be equivalent to the classes by those names in those other ontologies. * (isaSubtypeOf A B) means that Type A is a subtype of Type B and that all instance of Type A are also instances of Type B. COSMO: A PhysicalSubstance includes any of the common 'substances' we encounter every day: water, air, sugar, salt, coffee (ground or as a drink), beer, meat, steel, plastic, etc. This concept must not be construed as a physical object made of some substance. PhysicalObjects which are relatively homogeneous (the atmosphere, the ocean) can be construed as consisting of one or more PhysicalSubstances. IMPORTANT NOTE: PhysicalSubstances are categorized by the main consitutent. Therefore 'SeaWater' is considered as a subtype of 'Water'. The pure chemical substances can be represented when desirable by creating a 'Pure' category under the general heading. Thus we have a Type called 'PureWater'. Steel might be considered as a subtype of 'Iron', except that some steels do not have iron as the main consitutent. COSMO note: Because substances are represented in COSMO as Types (classes) rather than instances, the specification of properties of substances gets involved, and the intended meanings cannot be specified fully without the use of FOL. As placeholders, some relations between substances are specified, and in OWL these will be interprted as applying only to those specific Substances (Type that are instances of SubstanceType), while the intended meaning is that the relation applies not only to the particular Type but to all subtypes as well. THe translation of the OWL ontology to FOL should carefully handle these placeholder relations to be sure hey are translated properly. . The restriction on hasGrainDiameter for SubstanceTypes (which see) should require subclasses rather than instances of LengthMeasure - instances may have to be created as a workaround. (still not decided, v0.43). NOTE that a substance at some particular concentration is a subtype of that substance. To expresss that an object contains a particular concentration of a substance, one can create a subclass of that substance having the appropriate concentration attribute, and relate the object to that concentration of substance by the relation 'hasConstituentSubstance'. This representation solves some logical problems, but creates implementation problems in restricted logics such as OWL. We are using a relation: 'hasQualitativeAttribute', with specific substances as the domain 'instance', with a restriction on the range value, to indicate that substances necessarily have some particular property. However, OWL will interpret the restriction as applying to the instances of the substance Type (of which there are none) rather than on the substance Type itself, or its subtype. This restriction will have to be interpreted by applications as meaning that the substance represented by the class has those properties. the easy way to solve the problem is to create a metatype for each substance Type (i.e. for each of millions of substances), and have the restriction apply to the metatype - but this duplicates Types as metatypes. Leave the proper implementation to the application ConceptualWork[Cyc] In COSMO a 'ConceptualWork' (a MentalObject) is classified as an AbstractSymbolicObject, since such works are always created in symbols, though the symbols may have information content - the 'meaning'. COSMO differs somewhat from the Cyc description in that we consider Codes to be included, but have a different usage of the term 'Code'. Cyc: OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 The collection of abstract works which are the deliberate creations of one or more individuals working in concert, have instantiations [#$instantiationOfCW] which are #$InformationBearingThings, and associated #$AbstractInformationStructures. This is a specialization of #$DevisedPracticeOrWork [q.v.]. For works with propositional content see the more specific collection, #$PropositionalConceptualWork (PCW). Positive examples include: #$MobyDickNovel (as opposed to any instances of #$BookCopy such that (#$instantiationOfCW #$MobyDickNovel BOOK_COPY)), Beethoven's 9th Symphony (as opposed to any performance of this symphony or any copy of its score). Negative examples include: games (performances are not IBTs), awards (they do not have associated #$AbstractInformationStructures), paintings (not abstract), customs (not deliberate creations), natural languages (not a deliberate creation), and codes (their uses, not instantiations, are IBTs). description (from DOLCE-D_S) From DOLCE (Descriptions and Specifications): A description is a social object which represents a conceptualization (e.g. a mental object or state), hence it is generically dependent on some agent and communicable. Descriptions define or use concepts or figures, are expressed by an information object and can be satisfied by situations. The typology of descriptions is still preliminary. In COSMO, a Description is somewhat more specific: it is two or more assertions that all include the same entity as one of the arguments, and it is a MentalObject created to enable an Intelli"gentAgent to understand the nature of that entity. Specification[COSMO-suggested] COSMO: A Specification is a broad category of intentionally created abstract informational artifacts whose purpose is to describe the structure of a thing or a series of steps that may be taken to construct a thing or to accomplish a goal. It is a mental object having ordered components,the order of which is designed to accomplish a purpose. The steps may be abstract things like computational events or game rules, or physical things such as in industrial processes. The format of a formatted document is a specification,i.e. it specifies how a document of that type is to be constructed. Likewise a grammar or computer program is a specification. A specification does not necessarily require that the steps be in sequence. If they must be in sequence, it is a procedure. This differs somewhat from the Cyc 'Specification': Cyc comment: A specialization of #$ConceptualWork. Each instance of #$Specification is an abstract work that constitutes a description of the properties of a #$Situation or a #$SomethingExisting, and sometimes even entire collections of such things. Things are made, bought, and searched for according to specifications, which can be instantiated as printed instructions or as diagrams. This collection is modally neutral with regard to the descriptive character of its instances. Thus, it includes descriptions of how things are, were, should be, must be, etc. This is the most general Type in which to collect patterns of different kinds - visual, sound patterns, numerical patterns, behavioral patterns, etc. In COSMO, a Pattern is a Specification, which means that it is a kind of MentalObject. That means that Patterns do not have existence unless created by IntelligentAgents. This will probably seem odd to some people, who would prefer to think that patterns have an independent existence - especially when geometric figures are subtypes of 'Pattern'. At this point, there is no reason to classify Patterns in any way other than as specifications that people create to classify some types of relations that obejcts within groups of things may have to each other. If some reason is presented to consider patterns as independent of the way people use them, that may be a different concept, or may warrant reclassification. This is the most general Type in which to collect visual patterns - geometric designs, fingerprint patterns, artifact structural patterns, appearances, shapes, outlines, etc.. NOTE that an abstract image itself (e.g. an image of a fingerprint) can be a pattern. An instance of #$GeometricShapeType and a specialization of #$GeometricallyDescribableThing-Intangible and #$HomogeneousExtendedSpaceRegion (qq.v.). This is the collection of geometrical figures, conceived of as bounded (one- or higher-dimensional) regions of space. Neither a single point (see #$GeometricalPoint), nor a sum of scattered points, is an instance of #$Figure-Geometrical. Note that this collection includes line segments, but not unbounded lines. An important specialization of this collection is #$PlaneFigure-Geometrical. The class of all geometric figures, i.e. the class of all abstract, spatial representations. Instance of GeometricFigure are abstract mathematical objects which can be considered as independent of anything in our material universe. They are therefore not MentalObjects, which must be created by people. The instances of this class are GeometricPoints, TwoDimensionalFigures or ThreeDimensionalFigures or any other Object that can be represented as being a distribution of points, lines, planes, volumes, or hypervolumes in some abstract space. be91f0ad-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A CollectiveAgent is a human group or organization, acting as a unit or having some other agent acting in its behalf. OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 (termed MultiIndividualAgent in Cyc) The collection of all #$Agent-Generics that each consist of other #$Agent-Generics operating together. Usually the constituent agents form some kind of #$Group that itself acts as an #$Agent-Generic. Examples: a #$LegalCorporation, a #$GeographicalAgent, a #$Neighborhood or an #$Industry-Localized. Although it would be a positive exemplar of (#$GroupFn #$Agent), the 'group of people whose first names all start with the letter 'B'' is a negative exemplar of #$MultiIndividualAgent. In almost all contexts, such a group will not act as an #$Agent in any way. It is less cohesive than some of the least cohesive kinds of #$MultiIndividualAgents such as #$CrowdOfPeople. OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 This collection may be thought of as consisting of all the entities which are localizable within the context of a geography, in the sense that they might plausibly be represented on a map. This includes both #$PartiallyTangible entities like #$GeographicalRegions, and also entities that may be wholly #$Intangible, like territorial borders and boundaries, #$LatitudeLines and #$LongitudeLines, trajectories of missiles and courses of ships, and the #$Equator. A specialization of both #$MultiIndividualAgent and #$GeographicalThing. Each instance of #$GeographicalAgent is a group of people and/or organizations cohesive enough to be treated as an agent (see the collection #$Agent, of which #$GeographicalAgent is a specialization), and which occupies a particular instance of #$GeographicalRegion. Important specializations of #$GeographicalAgent include #$GeopoliticalEntity, #$University, and #$Neighborhood. Note that instances of #$GeographicalAgent are viewed in two significantly different ways with respect to two different types of geography-related microtheories. In a 'physical' geography microtheory (i.e. #$PhysicalGeographyMt and its submicrotheories), geographical agents are clearly distinguished from the regions they occupy. (#$TerritoryFn GEO-AGENT) is used in these contexts to denote the land mass (an instance of #$GeographicalRegion) occupied by a given geographical agent GEO-AGENT. In a 'dualist' geography microtheory (i.e. #$DualistGeopoliticalMt and its submicrotheories), on the other hand, geographical agents are viewed as being _both_ agents _and_ land masses (instances of #$GeographicalRegion). Thus, there is little need for #$TerritoryFn in the latter sort of context. (Despite their somewhat paradoxical flavor, dualist microtheories arguably allow Cyc to mimic commonsense reasoning about geographical agents and regions more closely than do the stricter physical microtheories.) There are also some 'generic' geography microtheories (e.g. #$WorldGeographyMt and #$UnitedStatesGeographyMt) which are neutral with respect to the physical and dualist views. Also see the shared-note for this constant. c1371c02-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A PhysicalQuantity is a measurable quantity that has a numerical value qualifying a UnitOfMeasure. In one notation, a mass of 25 grams could be expressed as '{25 grams}' where 'grams' is a function that returns a MassMeasure. PhysicalQuantities are measures of attributes of objects in our real world, and as such are subject to uncertainty, also called 'measurement error'. PhysicalQuantity has an attribute of 'MeasurementUncertainty', which is an optional attribute. When a MeasurementUncertainty is not explicitly provided with an instance of PhysicalQuantity, each implementing system has the option to designate default uncertainties, which may be general or specific to particular categories of measurement. COSMO note: PhysicalQuantities in COSMO are categorized both as quantities, and as AttributeValues. Conceptually, to be viewed as an attribute, some combination of AttributeType and AttributeValue would both be involved (e.g. 'a length of 30 cm'). But at this point (v0.3) it does not appear necessary to represent such quantitative attributes in that explicit manner. This issue remains open for possible future elaboration. SUMO: A PhysicalQuantity is a measure of some quantifiable aspect of the modeled world, such as 'the earth's diameter' (a constant length) and 'the stress in a loaded deformable solid' (a measure of stress, which is a function of three spatial coordinates). All PhysicalQuantities are either ConstantQuantities or FunctionQuantities. Instances of ConstantQuantity are dependent on a UnitOfMeasure, while instances of FunctionQuantity are Functions that map instances of ConstantQuantity to other instances of ConstantQuantity (e.g., TimeDependentQuantities are FunctionQuantities). Although the name and definition of PhysicalQuantity is borrowed from physics, PhysicalQuantities need not be material. Aside from the dimensions of length, time, velocity, etc., nonphysical dimensions such as currency are also possible. Accordingly, amounts of money would be instances of PhysicalQuantity. PhysicalQuantities are distinguished from Numbers by the fact that the former are associated with a dimension of measurement. Every PluralThing is a Group consisting of at least two or more entities, considered as one entity, and is related to the component entities by the relation 'hasComponentElement' The name of subtypes of 'PluralThing' in COSMO may take the form of a plural of a count noun. But plurals of count nouns are also used to name 'CommodityProducts', so that usage is not a reliable indicator that a term represents a PluralThing. A 'PluralThing' is an Object, and a 'CommodityProduct' is a substance, so the two are disjoint concepts, in spite of the close relation. The 'CommodityProduct should only be used in the substance sense, and PluralThing for those things who individual members are the focus of representation. NOTE: in COSMO, Group is restricted to groupings of at least one entity, as in OpenCyc. In this manner PluralThing stays closer to the linguistic intuition of a plural. A more generic Group that is not a TemporalThing could be defined, but is left out at this point. NOTE: BFO has the notion of an 'ObjectAggregate' which is similar to a 'PluralThing'; but in BFO the requirements are more stringent than for COSMO 'Group', since a COSMO 'Group' can be composed of arbitarily defined components, whereas in BFO each 'Object' of the aggregate must be an object with perceptible boundaries. Since BFO 'Object' is disjoint from 'fiat object part' and from ObjectAggregate, we need to make 'ObjectAggregate' a subtype of 'PluralThing', and to specify that each component of an 'ObjectAggregate' is a 'WholeObject'. OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 A specialization of #$Agent. Each instance of #$LegalAgent is an agent who has some status in a particular legal system. At the very least, such an agent is recognized by some legal authority as having some kinds of rights and/or responsibilities as an agent (e.g., #$citizens of Germany), or as being subject to certain restrictions and penalties (e.g., a company that has been blacklisted by Iraq). Thus, instances of #$LegalAgent include agents that may have property rights, may be taxed, may have a government identification number, may be sued, may have an address, or may buy or sell. Note that membership in this collection is very much dependent upon context. In some societies, only adult males and various kinds of state-run organizations would be included in #$LegalAgent. PhysicalSPaceRegion is a portion of the there-dimensional space of our real world space-time universe. This is considered equialent to\the BFO 'Volume' COSMO Note: SpaceRegion in OpenCyc is not an Object, but pure space. Objects may be located in space. This region is part our our Space-Time This concepts is roughly equivalent to the OpenCyc 'ChunkOfSpace-Empirical', but we allow space regions to be defined by their relation to physical objects - therefore they may not be 'immobile' as the Cyc documentation suggests for 'ChunkOfSpace-Empirical'. For simplicity, the Cyc concept 'SpaceRegion-Empirical' has been merged with this concept, as the distinctions did not seem to have sufficient importance to justify the complexity. BFO: the BFO Type 'SpatialRegion' appears to have the same intent as this Type. The BFo subtypes of Line and Surface appear to be isentical to the subtypes of this Type: SpaceLine-Empirical, SpaceSurface-Empirical, BFO Definition ('SpatialRegion'): A continuant at or in which other continuants can be located. BFO Examples ('SpatialRegion'): the space occupied by an appendix, the space that was occupied by an appendix prior to its removal Cyc comment for 'ChunkOfSpace-Empirical': A specialization of #$SpaceRegion-Empirical, #$ChunkOfSpace, and #$SpatialThing-Localized (qq.v.). Instances of #$ChunkOfSpace-Empirical are three-dimensional portions of the intangible space of the empirically-observable universe. This is the kind of space that physical objects occupy. Cyc comment for 'SpaceRegion-Empirical': A specialization of #$SpaceRegion, #$SpatialThing-Localized, and #$IntangibleExistingThing (qq.v.). Instances of #$SpaceRegion-Empirical are intangible regions of space located in the empirically observable universe. A space region might or might not be connected (see #$SpatiallyContinuousThing). It might be partially or completely filled with (occupied by) #$PartiallyTangibles, or it might be completely empty (but cf. #$EmptySpaceRegion). In any case, the space region itself is not to be confused with a physical object or other spatially localized (non-space-region) thing that might happen to be #$cospatial with it. A given space region can be characterized fully merely by specifying its location and dimensions. Thus (although this is not the case with spatial things in general), space regions are identical (#$equals) if and only if they are #$cospatial. #$SpaceRegion-Empirical is in a way the spatial analogue of #$TimeInterval, whose own instances can be fully characterized by specifying their temporal properties; these two collections can be used, respectively, to talk about space and time as dimensions . Specializations of #$SpaceRegion-Empirical include #$SpacePoint-Empirical, #$SpaceLine-Empirical, #$SpaceSurface-Empirical, and #$ChunkOfSpace-Empirical. OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 A specialization of #$SpatialThing whose instances are regions of space that exclusively act as locations for other spatial objects, and thus are immobile. Instances of #$SpatialThing are said to occupy some region of space. Three dimensional regions of space [#$ChunkOfSpace] can be occupied by solid objects, see the specialization #$ChunkOfSpace-Empirical for the regions of space occupied by physical objects. Purely two-dimensional objects occupy a #$SpaceSurface, see also #$SpaceLine and #$SpacePoint-Empirical for objects of lower dimension. Note that an object of a given dimension cannot truly be located [#$exactlyLocatedAt-Spatial] at a region of space of lower dimension, but only partially or incidentally. For more information on location and occupancy, see #$AbsoluteLocationalPredicate and its instances that relate objects in space and their regions. An important specialization of #$SpaceRegion is #$SpaceRegion-Empirical, whose instances are pieces of the embedding space where spatio-temporal objects are empirically localizable [#$SpatialThing-Localized]. Note that SpaceRegion in SUMO is an object viewed as a location. Cyc: A specialization of #$PartiallyIntangibleIndividual. Each instance of #$InformationStore is a tangible or intangible, concrete or abstract repository of information. The information stored in an information store is stored there as a consequence of the actions of one or more agents. Wholly intangible instances of #$InformationStore include instances of #$AspatialInformationStore and #$PropositionalInformationThing. Some instances of #$InformationStore - namely, instances of #$InformationBearingObject, such as copies of a newspaper at a newsstand - are only partially intangible. beefff28-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 GenericSubstance[COSMO-added:_not_an_object,_includes_chemicals] List name: GenericSubstance_COSMO-added__not_an_object__includes_chemicals_ COSMO: GenericSubstance is an abstract notion of Substance as the stuff of which objects are composed. It is not an object, even though 'Substance' in OpenCyc and SUMO are actually objects of some particular (homogeneous) composition. In COSMO, we make this provision, among other reasons, to allow abstract 'substances' to compose abstract objects. In COSMO 'Subtance' is a concept that is analogous to the derivative of an object with respect to volume, i.e. it acts like an abstract density (of some substance type). For COSMO version 0.01 (COSMOtopOWL03: 2006-01-01) the required axioms for a proper definition have not been added. For more discussion see: http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/SICoP/ontac/reference/DimensionsOfProcessAndEvent.doc An OrderedGroup is a Group that has some ordering relation between component elements. It usually has more than one component element, but to allow generalization of certain concepts such as an ActionSeries, an OrderedGroup is allowed to have as few as one component element. The ordering may be of any kind: a simple linear order, or a complex multi-dimensional pattern. The most common kind of OrderedGroup is one that is linearly ordered, and each such Group is an instance of the subtype 'LinearlyOrderedGroup'. An OrderedGroup may be physical, whereas a List is an AbstractInformationStore. Therefore not all OrderedGroups are Lists. One may define an OrderedGroup that is a List, if one is careful that the OrderedGroup is also an AbstractInformationStore. Some AttributeValue specific to Organisms. This is very general. Each 'IntensiveAttributeValue' is an AttributeValue that may be qualitative or quantitative, and expresses an intensity of some AttributeType. This is very general. Certain IntensiveAttributeValues may take both verbal intensive values (high'. 'medium', 'low'. and numerical values 'the drug is only 25% effective at preventing cancer'. 'Ordered' is an AttributeValue of Groups that have some kind of ordering. More specific orderings will be subtypes of this AttributeValue, such as 'LinearlyOrdered' Any AttributeType specific to Organisms. 'DegreeOfIntensity' is an AttributeType whose values express some 'IntensiveAttributeValue'. 'Ordered' is an AttributeValue of Groups that have some kind of ordering. More specific orderings will be subtypes of this Attributealue, such as 'LinearlyOrdered' COSMO: A GeopoliticalEntity in COSMO differs from its representation in other ontologies, to stay closer to the linguistic intuitions. Specifically, we say 'government of France', implying that the entity 'France' is not identical to its government. To conform to those intuitions, 'France' and other countries will be GeopoliticalEntities. Therefore a GeopoliticalEntity is something distinct from the organization which forms the government. In COSMO, it is an unusual hybrid, being both a MentalObject and a GenericLocation. Itis neither a PhysicalObject nor an Organization. The Governmen of a GeopoliticalEntity is an Organization. A GeopoliticalEntity in COSMO is a composite Entity which (1) is an agent (2) claims control over some land area of the earth (3) has a government or other ruling organization, which is also an agent (4) is a MentalObject, meaning that it does not have mass and was created by an IntelligentAgent NOTE1: As a GenericLocation, one can say that something isLocatedAt a GeopoliticalEntity even though one means that an object isLocatedAt the region controlled by the GeopoliticalEntity. When an instance of a GeopoliticalEntity is used as an argument that should logically take a region, the implementation should, for consistency, coerce the argument into the corresponding GeopoliticalArea. At present (v0.48) there is no 'disjoint' relation that will cause a logical contradiction, but elaboration of the ontology might cause problems at some point for the use of an Agent as a Location. Alternatives may be worth exploring. NOTE2: if the government performs an action, it is unclear whether it is alway proper to say that a country (or city) performed that action. Therefore the GeopoliticalEntity and its government are treated as distinct agents, though it will probably be true in almost all cases that when one acts, the other can be said to act. NOTE3 that countries have four aspects: (1) the country itself, the GeopoliticalEntity (2) the government of the country (3) the spatial region controlled by the counry (4) the physical objects within the spatial region controlled by the country. (4.1) among the physical objects are those that are part of the land, including the vegetation, and those that are animals or artifactual structures. In normal speech, the distinctions among these are not made because the referents are clear from the context. For this ontology, the distinctions appear necessary. A GeopoliticalEntity usually has an Organization that claims control over the geographical region identified as the area of the GeopoliticalEntity. Usually this will be a government, but occasionally other Organizations such as occupying armies will claim control without claiming to be a formal government. This concept differs from the OpenCyc #$GeopoliticalEntity in that it is strictly an organization, whereas the Cyc concept includes some element of the geographical region itself. The Cyc documentation is reproduced here to clarify the difference: Cyc: A specialization of #$Organization and of #$LegalAgent and of #$GeographicalAgent; instances of this collection control #$GeographicalRegions. Each instance of #$GeopoliticalEntity includes a governing body, but is more than just that governing body. Important subcollections include #$Country, #$IndependentCountry, #$State-Geopolitical, #$City, and #$Province. Instances include #$CityOfTokyoJapan, #$BronxNY-Borough, #$Alaska-State, #$Rwanda, #$Singapore, #$InnerMongolia, #$Somerset-CountyEngland, and #$Taiwan-RepublicOfChina. A central feature of this collection is that geopolitical-entities (indeed, all #$GeographicalAgents) are viewed in two significantly different ways with respect to two different types of geography-related microtheories. In a physical geography microtheory (i.e. #$PhysicalGeographyMt and its submicrotheories), geopolitical-entities are clearly distinguished from the regions they control. (#$TerritoryFn GEO-POL) is used in these contexts to denote the land mass (a #$GeopoliticalRegion) of a given geopolitical-entity GEO-POL. In a dualist geography microtheory (i.e. #$DualistGeopoliticalMt and its submicrotheories), on the other hand, geopolitical-entities are viewed as being _both_ agents _and_ land masses (i.e. #$GeographicalRegions). Thus, there is little need for #$TerritoryFn in the latter sort of context. (Despite their somewhat paradoxical flavor, dualist microtheories arguably allow Cyc to mimic commonsense reasoning about geopolitical entities and regions more closely than do the stricter physicalist microtheories.) There are also some generic geography microtheories (e.g. #$WorldGeographyMt and #$UnitedStatesGeographyMt) which are neutral with respect to the physical and dualist views. Also see the shared-note for this constant. bd58e5da-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A Quantitifier is some numerical or verbal value that specifies or restricts the numerical prefix for a QuantitativeAttributeValue. The simples arre numbers, suc as 3 in the distance measure {3 feet}. A quantifier can also be a range {2 to 4}, such has in{{2 to 4} feet}. A quantifier can also be a number with a variance {3 +- 1}, such has {{3 +- 1} feet}. A quantifier can be verbal, such as 'High', 'Medium' or 'Low' such as {High Intensity}. Quantifiers may have default variances. See: 'hasDefaultVariance' and 'ConfidenceInterval'. A MentalObject is an Object that does not have mass and was created by an IntelligentAgent (usually a Person.or Organization). This is a very broad and primitive category comprehensible mostly by inspection of a list of subtypes. Since this is not physical, instances of this Type are not observable, but physical representations of instances of this Type (such as a specific copy of 'Gone With the Wind') can be weighed and felt. Abstract texts, musical compositions, propositions, theories, plays, poems, speeches, rights - all are MentalObjects. They will invariably have a physical representation in some PhysicalObject (including brains, light waves and sound waves). But the MentalObject itself has no physical (material) component. This corresponds closely to what in some systems (e.g. the Ontology Works top ontology) is called an 'AbstractArtifact' - something created by a Person that is not a PhysicalObject. We adopt the convention that an individual MentalObject exists only so long as there is some PhysicalObject that represents it. That PhysicalObject could be the brain of a Person, some sound or electromagnetic waves encoding that MentalObject, or some piece of paper with markings on it. When the last physical object representing that MentalObject ceases to exist, that MentalObject also ceases to exist. A new MentalObject indistinguishable from a previously existing one can always be created (even by the original creator), but it would be a different individual with a different identity. NOTE that a MentalObject is a subtype of 'AbstractEntity', but we adopt the convention that it can hava a location in space-time, being the collection of locations where its physical representations are located. Thus a Belief or a Proposition may be located in the brain of one or more IntelligentAgents, or in physical documents describing the belief symbolically. This 'location' differs from the location of any individual physical object, because the location is the collection of all physical objects containing representations of the Mental Object. This notion of 'abstract' is not the same as the traditional 'abstract' which cannot be located in space-time. Other subtypes of 'AbstractEntity' such as MathemaitcalObjects will be more traditionally abstract in that way. An idiosyncratic 'location' for a MentalObject is the location of a GeopoliticalEntity, which is located in the region controlled by the GeopoliticalEntity. Equivalent to the Cyc #$Artifact-Intangible OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002: A specialization of both #$IntangibleIndividual and #$Artifact-Generic. Each instance of #$Artifact-Intangible is an intangible thing intentionally created by an agent or agents. Important specializations of #$Artifact-Intangible include #$ComputerLanguage, #$ConceptualWork, and #$Agreement. A standard of measurement for some dimension. For example, the Meter is a UnitOfMeasure for the dimension of length, as is the Inch. There is no intrinsic property of a UnitOfMeasure that makes it primitive or fundamental; rather, a system of units (e.g. SystemeInternationalUnit) defines a set of orthogonal dimensions and assigns units for each. Cyc: A specialization of #$ScalarDenotingFunction (q.v.). Each instance of #$UnitOfMeasure is a function that takes one or two numbers or other #$NumericIntervals as arguments, and returns as value a #$MeasurableQuantity (q.v.), such as a #$Distance or a #$Speed or a #$Volume. If a unit of measure is applied to one number (see #$Number-General) the result is a precise quantity that is a #$ScalarPointValue; if applied to two (different) numbers -- or to one (or two) #$ProperIntervalOnNumberLine(s) -- the result is a closed-interval quantity that is a #$ScalarProperInterval. For example, (#$Meter 5) is the distance five meters and (#$Meter 5 10) is the distance five to ten meters (inclusive) . (A partial exception to the above is the unit-of-measure #$Unity (q.v.), which always returns a #$NumericInterval rather than a #$MeasurableQuantity.) Specializations of #$UnitOfMeasure grouped by what they measure include #$UnitOfTime, #$UnitOfSpeed, and #$UnitOfVolume. Other specializations are #$OneDimensionalUnitOfMeasure, #$MultiDimensionalUnitOfMeasure, #$UnitOfMeasureWithPrefix and #$UnitOfMeasureNoPrefix. bd5880aa-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 COSMO: An InformationObject is a MentalObject created by an IntelligentAgent that contains Information in some form. The name 'Information-object' is from DOLCE. Comparable to the OpenCyc '#$AbstractInformationalThing'. This subsumes both the symbolic objects that people may create as well as the yet more abstract informational content ('propositional content') which may be viewed as existing independent of the symbols used to encode it. 'Information' has not been well defined yet, so this category does not have clear defining conditions of its own, but subsumes things like AbstractSymbolicObjects, Propositions, and Languages. Every Communication transfers some InformationObject. DOLCE; Information objects are social objects. They are realized by some entity. They are ordered (expressed according to) by some system for information encoding. Consequently, they are dependent from an encoding as well as from a concrete realization.They can express a description (the ontological equivalent of a meaning/conceptualization), can be about any entity, and can be interpreted by an agent.From a communication perspective, an information object can play the role of 'message'. From a semiotic perspective, it plays the role of 'expression'. OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002\nA heterogeneous collection of abstract objects that pertain to information. Subsumes not only #$Proposition, but also the collections #$Sentence, #$CharacterString, #$AtomicSymbol-Abstract, #$Microtheory, #$PropositionalInformationThing, and #$ConceptualWork. Note that while all #$AbstractInformationalThings are abstract objects (this collection is disjoint with #$SpatialThing-Localized), most instances of this collection can have multiple concrete 'embodiments';. A single instance of #$Sentence can be written on several peices of paper (see #$instantiationOfAIS); a #$PropositionalInformationThing may be the content of several concrete documents, such as instances of #$BookCopy (see #$containsInfoPropositional-IBT); and several events, such as spoken utterances, may have a certain #$Proposition as their content (see #$containsInformation). Note that some instances of #$AbstractInformationalThing have temporal extent. Examples include all instances of #$Novel-CW and #$Movie-CW. Others specs are disjoint with #$TemporalThing. Examples include all instances of #$Character-Abstract and #$Proposition. A AbstractSymbolicObject is a mental object which is created to serve as a Symbol, i.e. to represent something other than itself. This is not a physical object, but more abstract, such as the letter 'a', which may have representations in billions of different physical objects, but retains its identity as the unique (Roman alphabet) letter 'a'. Every SymbolicObject is represented in at least one PhysicalObject, even if only the brain of the person who created it. The more interesting SymbolicObjects are texts and documents. This Type is approximately equal to,and merged with, the Cyc 'AbstractInformationStructure' From Cyc: OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002\ A subcollection of #$AbstractInformationalThing whose instances involve symbols standing in certain relations to one another. Important specializations include #$CharacterString and #$Sentence. #$AbstractInformationStructure also includes abstract diagrams, graphs, and bit strings. The collection can be more precisely defined as follows: Each #$AbstractInformationStructure is such that each of its physical instantiations (see #$instantiationOfAIS) consists of instantiations of instances of #$AtomicSymbol-Abstract, arranged in a certain way. For example, the abstract sentence 'The pig flies' is an #$AbstractInformationStructure. Each written instantiation of it consists of an instantiation of the words (symbols) 'The', 'pig' and 'flies', written in that order. (If the #$AbstractInformationStructure 'The pig flies' were spoken, the same words would appear in the same order, i.e. 'The' first, etc., but the sequence would be determined by the arrangement of the words in time, rather than space.) Likewise with abstract diagrams, graphs, etc. Each of these is such that their physical instantiations consist of arrangements of instantiations of instances of #$AtomicSymbol-Abstract. A hard copy of a wiring diagram consists of a group of concrete symbols representing various circuit components, in which these symbols are spatially arranged in a certain in way. The arrangement of the concrete symbols in an instantiation of an #$AbstractInformationStructure is not always a simple matter of arrangement in space or time. The sequence of symbols '0010010111011001' can be instantiated in written, spoken, or electronic forms. In the last case, the order of the symbols is determined by conventions concerning the electronic medium in which it is stored, rather than by any common criterion for precedence or subsequence in space or time. Cyc term: 'AspatialInformationStore' Cyc: A specialization of #$AspatialThing, #$IntangibleIndividual, and #$InformationStore. #$AspatialInformationStore is the collection of all information stores that have no spatial location. Specializations of #$AspatialInformationStore include #$ConceptualWork, #$Microtheory, #$AbstractInformationStructure, and #$FieldOfStudy. Although no instance of #$AspatialInformationStore has a spatial location, some instances can have multiple spatio-temporal embodiments . For example, an instance of #$PropositionalInformationThing may be the content of several concrete documents, such as several instances of #$BookCopy (see #$containsInfoPropositional-IBT); and several distinct events, such as spoken utterances, may have a certain unique #$Proposition as their content (see #$containsInformation). bdff6c64-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 COSMO note: in COSMO this type is abstract and does not include physical objects. Cyc: A specialization of both #$InformationStore and #$PartiallyIntangibleIndividual. Each instance of #$StructuredInformationSource is an #$InformationStore in which bits of information are represented as related in a systematic way that is easily characterized by some type of formal structure, including spatial or architectural terms (used metaphorically). Examples include: a database organized in fields and values; a spreadsheet organized in rows and columns with entries; an organizational tree diagram with nodes and branches; a topographical map; a document written in HTML (hyper-text markup language). Negative examples include computer programs, poems, and novels. AttributeTypeType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for AttributeTypes (length, mass), and an argument restriction for various relations on AttributeType types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of Agent as one of their arguments. All Organisms, plant, animal, microorganism, are of AgentType. MeasurableQuantityType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for MeasurableQuantities, whether abstract or physical, and an argument restriction for various relations on MeasurableQuantity types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. ShapeType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for shape attributes and an argument restriction for the hasShape relation. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations. NOTE: as of v0.50, both shape attributes and specifically shaped objects can be instances of ShapeType. @ToDo - this should probably be differentiated. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take an instance of Pattern as one of their arguments. QualitativeAttributeType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for taste attributes and an argument restriction for some relations on QualitativeAttributes. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations. A subcollection of #$SpatialThing. Each instance of #$GeometricallyDescribableThing is a spatially-connected spatial thing (of 0, 1, 2, or 3 dimensions) that either (i) has or approximates a simple geometric shape (e.g. it is a #$Line or a #$Hemisphere) or (ii) consists of a number of (connected) parts in a relatively stable geometric configuration, where each such part has or approximates a simple geometric shape (e.g. a table consisting of a 3-D-disc-shaped top and four cylindrical legs). A #$GeometricallyDescribableThing might be tangible (see #$PhysicalObject) or intangible (see #$GeometricallyDescribableThing-Intangible). Note that what counts as approximating a given simple geometric shape -- and thus what spatial things count as #$GeometricallyDescribableThings - varies with context. In a context that was so fine-grained shape-wise that even the shapes of the individual molecules on the surface of an object were considered relevant to the object's shape, perhaps nearly every (connected, solid) tangible object would be geometrically-describable. In more everyday contexts, on the other hand, an unopened can of soup would be geometrically-describable (as a cylinder), while a telephone or an animal's body would probably not. bd58c42e-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A specialization of both #$GeometricallyDescribableThing and #$IntangibleIndividual (qq.v.). This is the collection of all intangible, geometrically-describable things, whether spatially localized or not. #$GeometricallyDescribableThing-Intangible is the intersection (see #$collectionIntersection) of #$GeometricallyDescribableThing and #$Intangible. Examples include any spatially-connected, intangible thing that has or approximates (or which consists entirely of parts that all have or approximate) a simple geometric shape, such as the intangible space determined by a particular Egyptian pyramid, an abstract Platonic sphere, or the center of mass of the solar system (a point) at the first instant of the Twentieth Century in Greenwich, England. Important specializations of this collection are #$GeometricThing-Localized (which includes all spatially localized instances) and #$GeometricThing-Abstract (which includes all instances not spatially located in the empirically-observable universe). c12c73ef-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A specialization of #$TwoOrHigherDimensionalThing and #$SpaceRegionLimit. This is the collection of all surfaces, tangible or intangible (see #$Surface-Physical and #$Surface-Intangible), of spatial things. Each instance of #$Surface-Generic is a spatial thing that has extent in at least two dimensions, and either has no thickness (i.e. is a purely two-dimensional object) or has an insignificant thickness compared to its length and width. (If it is a closed surface, e.g. an apple skin, then any significant subregion of it must have insignificant thickness compared to that subregion's length and width.) Thus a surface might be two- or three-dimensional; tangible or intangible; spatially connected or not; it might be flat, curved, folded, or crumpled. Other examples of surfaces are the skin of a basketball, the face-up side of a table top, and a particular face of an abstract cube. Other specializations of #$Surface-Generic are #$FlatSurface, #$Surface-Closed, and #$Surface-Open. A specialization of #$Surface-Generic (q.v.).This is the collection of open surfaces of (tangible or intangible) spatial objects. Each instance of #$Surface-Open has some boundary, such as an edge, perimeter, or hole. Examples include the top surface of a tabletop, the surface of a whiffle ball, a slightly cracked eggshell, and the skin of an apple with a bite taken from it. Non-examples are a basketball skin and an intact eggshell; cf. #$Surface-Closed. Note that 'hole' here is intended in its colloquial, human-scale sense, according to which (e.g.) a wiffle ball has holes but a baseball does not (even though at some fine-grained level the latter does have tiny holes). bd8cb302-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 GeographicalRegion_Cyc-includes_other_planets In COSMO, this type includes any region on or near the surface of a planet, including the region that contains its atmosphere. But the usage here differs from that in Cyc, and this category is not a physical object. For physical objects at the surface of a planet, see 'PlanetarySurfaceObject'. Cyc comment: A specialization of #$GeographicalThing and #$Surface-Physical. Each instance of #$GeographicalRegion is a tangible spatial region that includes some piece of the surface of a planet (usually #$PlanetEarth), and may be represented on a map of the planet. This includes purely topographical regions like mountains and underwater spaces, places defined by demographics (e.g., language areas) and territory otherwise demarcated (e.g. #$TimeZones). In dualist geopolitical contexts [see #$DualistGeopoliticalMt], instances of #$GeopoliticalEntity are also considered to be instances of #$GeographicalRegion. In all cases the region in question must contain some tangible component with which it is possible to make physical contact. The instances of #$GeographicalRegion contrast in this respect with the instances of #$GeographicalThing-Intangible, which are wholly intangible. Examples of #$GeographicalRegion include #$RockyMountainStates-USRegion, the #$ContinentOfAustralia, #$SinaiPeninsula, and - in dualist geopolitical contexts - #$YaleUniversity and #$CityOfPittsburghPA. Some important types of regions are represented by the sub-collections #$LanguageArea, #$TimeZone, #$PostalCodeRegion, #$EcologicalRegion, #$ConstructionSite, and - in dualist geopolitical contexts -- #$GeopoliticalEntity. No instances of #$GeographicalRegion are wholly indoor locations. GeographicalRegion[Cyc-includes_other_planets] NOTE that OpenCyc spatialThing does not necessarily have to be in our Space-Time; it can be in an abstract space. So this is not identical to DOLCE 'spatio-temporal-particular', which is a subclass. OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 The collection of all things that have a spatial extent or location relative to some other #$SpatialThing or in some embedding space. Note that to say that an entity is a member of this collection is to remain agnostic about two issues. First, a #$SpatialThing may be #$PartiallyTangible (e.g. #$Texas-State) or wholly #$Intangible (e.g. #$ArcticCircle or a line mentioned in a geometric theorem). Second, although we do insist on location relative to another spatial thing or in some embedding space, a #$SpatialThing might or might not be located in the actual physical universe. It is far from clear that all #$SpatialThings are so located: an ideal platonic circle or a trajectory through the phase space of some physical system (e.g.) might not be. If the intent is to imply location in the empirically observable cosmos, the user should employ this collection's specialization, #$SpatialThing-Localized. A #$SpatialThingTypeByDimensionality and a specialization of #$SpatialThing, each instance of which is either a one- or two- or three- (or higher-) dimensional spatial object. Examples include tangible or intangible spatially-localized dimensional objects, such as the edge of a tabletop, the surface of the tabletop, and the table itself, as well as abstract geometrical objects that are at least one-dimensional, such as a Platonic circle or cube. Specializations of this collection include #$ExtendedSpaceRegion, #$ShapedThing, and #$TwoOrHigherDimensionalThing. A #$SpatialThingTypeByDimensionality and a specialization of #$SpatialThing, each instance of which is either a two- or three- (or higher-) dimensional spatial object. Examples include tangible or intangible spatially-localized polydimensional objects, such as the flat surface of a tabletop and the table itself, as well as abstract geometrical objects that are at least two-dimensional, such as a Platonic cube. Specializations of this collection include #$PartiallyTangible, #$BilateralObject, and #$TwoDimensionalGeometricThing. COSMO Note: note that Cyc SpatialThing does not have to be in our space-time, whereas DOLCE spatio-temporal-particular is. So the DOLCE class is a subclass of the Cyc class. OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 The collection of all things that have a spatial extent or location relative to some other #$SpatialThing or in some embedding space. Note that to say that an entity is a member of this collection is to remain agnostic about two issues. First, a #$SpatialThing may be #$PartiallyTangible (e.g. #$Texas-State) or wholly #$Intangible (e.g. #$ArcticCircle or a line mentioned in a geometric theorem). Second, although we do insist on location relative to another spatial thing or in some embedding space, a #$SpatialThing might or might not be located in the actual physical universe. It is far from clear that all #$SpatialThings are so located: an ideal platonic circle or a trajectory through the phase space of some physical system (e.g.) might not be. If the intent is to imply location in the empirically observable cosmos, the user should employ this collection's specialization, #$SpatialThing-Localized. Note that most of the Cyc 'SpatialThings' are in our universe (though not necessarily), so most are also under DOLCE 'spatio-temporal-particular'. DOLCE: Dummy class for optimizing some property universes. It includes all entities that are not reifications of universals ('abstracts'), i.e. those entities that are in space-time. spatio-temporal-particular[DOLCE]%SpatialThing Each GeographicalRegion is a connected one-,two- or three-dimensional region of space located on or near the surface of some astronomical body, not necessarily the Earth. For 3-dimensonal regions specifically on the Earth, use 'GeographicalArea'. It is understood that the regions defined are stationary with respect to some coordinate system in which the astronomical object itself is considered to be stationary. The astronomical object itself (most commonly the Earth) will of course be rotating and moving through space, and those motions are ignored when the relative locations defined by 'GeographicalRegion' are used. A GeographicalRegion will include some portion of the space above the solid material that defines the region, and below the surface; at this point (v 0.44) we have not precisely specified how much of the space above or below the surface is included. COSMO note: this Cyc category is reinterpreted as representing only spatial regions - points, areas, or volumes, on or near the surface of some planetary body (to clearly specify the Earth, use the subtype 'GeographicalArea'), but this does not represent any of the physical objects that might exist in that region. The discussion of 'tangible' in the Cyc documentation below suggests the inclusion of physical objects, but that is not the intent of this COSMO cateegory. Though this category does not include any physical objects, one may use 'GeographicalObject' to specify all of the objects in any GeographicalRegion, if desired. Cyc: A specialization of #$GeographicalThing and #$Surface-Physical. Each instance of #$GeographicalRegion is a tangible spatial region that includes some piece of the surface of a planet (usually #$PlanetEarth), and may be represented on a map of the planet. This includes purely topographical regions like mountains and underwater spaces, places defined by demographics (e.g., language areas) and territory otherwise demarcated (e.g. #$TimeZones). In dualist geopolitical contexts [see #$DualistGeopoliticalMt], instances of #$GeopoliticalEntity are also considered to be instances of #$GeographicalRegion. In all cases the region in question must contain some tangible component with which it is possible to make physical contact. The instances of #$GeographicalRegion contrast in this respect with the instances of #$GeographicalThing-Intangible, which are wholly intangible. Examples of #$GeographicalRegion include #$RockyMountainStates-USRegion, the #$ContinentOfAustralia, #$SinaiPeninsula, and - in dualist geopolitical contexts - #$YaleUniversity and #$CityOfPittsburghPA. Some important types of regions are represented by the sub-collections #$LanguageArea, #$TimeZone, #$PostalCodeRegion, #$EcologicalRegion, #$ConstructionSite, and - in dualist geopolitical contexts -- #$GeopoliticalEntity. No instances of #$GeographicalRegion are wholly indoor locations.. Role is a high-level concept that aggregates several primitive notions, and is difficult to describe analytically, but has a necessary property that, as a subtype of TemporalThing, every instance has a beginning time and an ending time. For Roles that are created by an Event and last forever, (The Father of PrinceWilliam), the ending time can be TheEndOfTime. For case roles in a specific Event, the Role lasts no longer than the duration of the Event (but may last for less than that time, for participants who participate only for part of an Event). The most common use of 'Role' is for concepts that exist in dependence on other concepts, such as 'Mother', which implies a child, or 'President' which implies some organization. But grammatical roles such as the cases of verb case frames will also fit under this broad category. When a phrase such as 'The ?X of ?Y' is encountered, almost invariably the ?X is a Role of some kind, which also includes parts. In COSMO 'Role' is broad enough to include Events; for example, 'Choice' is a Role, and some Events may fill the Role of 'Choice' - those thing a Person chooses to do. NOTE importantly: that HumanRole is a subtype of this category, and also a subtype of Person, so Person and Role are not disjoint. This allows HumanRoles (janitor, President) to serve in the same relations that people themselves would serve, but they are also recognizable as Roles because they will be subtypes of the Role category. The mathematical and logical 'equals' can be used to equate a unique Role with its filler, but only if the time interval during which that relation hodls is specified. In that case, the Role and its filler can be used interchangeably, but only in the base 'all-knowing' context NOTE that Roles may not be 'transparent' in referential contexts asserting beliefs or possible worlds. A person who does not know the filler of a Role may express opinions about the Role, which are inconsistent with their opinions about the filler of the Role. For example, a man who loves his wife may assert that he hates the murderer of a friend, not knowing that his wife is the murderer of his friend. If the Role and role filler were asserted to be mathematically identical in all contexts, this would entail a contradiction, assuming that love and hate are disjoint for this example. An individual assertion by a Person needs to be treated as a part of a belief system. NOTE also that when used as a pure OWL ontology, it will be necessary for every subclass of Role should to be an instance of RoleType, so that it can be used as an argument for the relation 'isServingInTheRoleOf'. If, in other formats, this condition is not explicit, the translation should add the Type when converting into OWL format. For Roles that are merged with other Types, such as HumanRoles, each should have its own explicit relation indicating when the role-filler started in that role and when (it/he/she) ended. If it is possible to fill a Role for multiple non-continguous periods of time, then the begin and end time of each continuous segment of 'Role' will define individual instances of that Role; as a reault, the relation 'isServingInTheRoleOf' cannot be functional. NOTE also that the use of 'Role" in the COSMO is still being developed, and is likely to be seen to be inconsistent in application (though not logically inconsistent) as of v 0.49. The issue not yet resolved is whether the subtypes of 'Role' as here used would be better categorized as 'playing a role' rather than 'being a role'. Although this quasi-philosophical issue is not yet clear, this vagueness does not appear to cause any logical inconsistencies in usage. COSMO: a three-dimensional region of some space (not necessarily our real world space). This is the space itself, and does not include or immply that ther are any objects in it. However, each instance of this kind fo space will usually be interpreted relative to some defined cooridinate system, which, in the ral world, usually means that it is relative to some physical object (which could be the collecion of all object in the universe as a whole, to provide a universal frame of revernce). In Cyc called 'ChunkOfSpace'. Cyc: A specialization of both #$ExtendedSpaceRegion and #$TwoOrHigherDimensionalThing (qq.v.). Instances of #$ChunkOfSpace are three-dimensional portions of a three-dimensional space. This is the kind of place that solid (i.e. three-dimensional) objects occupy. It makes sense to speak of, or compute, the volume of such objects. An important specialization of this collection is #$ChunkOfSpace-Empirical, whose instances are pieces of space in the empirical universe - the kind of space that physical objects occupy. be669a01-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 COSMO note: Place can be a PhysicalObject or a Region. This category is very generic. Cyc: A specialization of #$EnduringThing-Localized. Each instance of #$Place is a spatial thing which has a relatively permanent location. Thus, in a given microtheory, each #$Place is stationary with respect to the frame of reference of that microtheory. bd58d3b4-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 COSMO note: this type appears to be intended to represent humans and human groups, so it is placed as a subtype of 'IntelligentAgent'. DOLCE only: 'agentive-social-object' A social object that is assumed to internally represent a plan. Since social objects are dependent on physical ones, it is not trivial to interpret the local sense in which a social object 'internally represents' a plan. For example, an institution can have the plan to promote or regulate some activities, but this is possible by means of the powers conferred to it by some legal system, through its representatives, and that plan has to be executed by means of the physical agents that 'act for' the institution. A SpatialRegion can be of any dimension, though the ones of most interest are three-dimensional in our real world. All Regions must have their location referenced to some definable object, whether abstract or physical. In theory, it may be possible to consider the whole universe as an Object and define 'absolute' regions based on locations in the whole universe, but that may not be useful for any practical purpose. The regions of greatest interest to people are regions defined relative to the Earth's surface, which forms a moving rotating frame of reference, which we treat as stationary for most purposes. NOTE: The BFO 'SpatialRegion' is closest to the COSMO 'PhysicalSpaceRegion' which is a subtype of this Type. Agent-Generic[Cyc]%Agent[DOLCE]%SentientAgent[SUMO] An IntentionalAgent is an Agent that (typically) has the capacity to form a plan of action. Therefore an IntentionalAgent is an Agent to whom some purpose may be assigned - even if only the purpose of survival. The level of intentionality required to belong to this category is not as high as that required to belong to the more specific category of 'IntelligentAgent'. Therefore computer programs that do not approach human-level linguistic capacity, but have some level of intentionality (in this ontology 'SoftwareAgents') will fit in this category. But to belong to this category a comouter program must have a high degree of autonomy - it must be able to reason about situations and form plans that were not preprogrammed. As of 2008 it is uncertain whether any such programs exist. IntentionalAgent is disjoint from Artifact-NonAgentive. This category will also include some non-human animals that can be said to be able to form some plans, however primitive. As of COSMO version 0.3, we include only mammals under this class. If it is shown that other animals can form primitive plans, at that time they may also be added as subtypes of this category. OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 #$Agent-Generic is the collection of all agents, or things (like #$Animals, #$Robots, #$DivineBeings, etc.) that have desires and intentions and the presumed ability to act on them. An instance of this collection may be an instance of #$AgentiveArtifact or #$Agent (but not both). In SUMO, 'CognitiveAgent' appears to be the approximate equivalent. SUMO: An Agent that has rights but may or may not have responsibilities and the ability to reason. If the latter are present, then the Agent is also an instance of CognitiveAgent. Domesticated animals are an example of SentientAgents that are not also CognitiveAgents. DOLCE: agent: A catch-all class used to join agentive objects (either physical or social). Agents are dispositionally so, in the sense that they internally represent descriptions, and in particular plans, goals and possible actions, but they do not necessarily act. In everyday language, agent is used in this sense, but also to tell that something has acted in a certain way, or to say that something has an initiator or leading role in some action. In DLP, the performs relation encodes these notions. An IntelligentAgent is an agent (Person, Organization, GroupOfPeople, or possibly spirits or an intelligent machine) that can form plans, use knowledge in plans, and can communicate in language. Some activities, such as buying things, can only be performed by an IntelligentAgent. Among the natural animals, only people qualify for this status - in this respect, this category differs from the definition given by Cyc (below). Groups of people, or organizations whose acts are in fact carried out by people (or machines directed by people), can be considered as IntelligentAgents - by the convention that the acts carried out by people who are authorized to act in the name of an organization are acts of the organization. (see Organization). To some degree, existing or future computers may also have such a capacity, and would fit into this category, even if the range of linguistic inputs that would generate an appropriate response may be much more limited than for an adult human;'intelligence' is therefore a quantitative attribute, which has a range of values. NOTE that this category needs to be carefully axiomatized so that the system will recognize blocking conditions that may prevent the understanding of language in specific circumstances: for example, an individual person will only understand one or a small number of languages; a person will understand language only when conscious and awake, and able to perceive the input. A human baby will not understand language at birth, and will develop that capacity gradually; nevertheless a human baby is an instance of this Type. Implementing the use of such blocking conditions will be complex, but including any agent type that can normally understand some human or near-human language appears to be preferable to creating a subtype of human that can qualify absolutely as understanding language, without conditions. NOTE that a Person is an IntelligentAgent, and therefore a DeadPerson is also an IntelligentAgent. In most circumstances, one would not consider a DeadPerson as being able to understand language, unless one is within a belief system where spirits sruvive bodily death. Death is one of the potential blocking conditions for language understanding that will need to be interpreted in context. NOTE that as of 2008, there were no machines that acted on their own behalf, and any action taken by a machine is to be attributed to the agency of the person, organizaton, or GroupOfpeople who directed that machine to act. This is similar to the Cyc #$IntelligentAgent,but excludes non-human animals: From Cyc: A specialization of #$Agent-Generic (q.v.) whose instances are all agents capable of knowing and acting, and of employing their knowledge in their actions. An intelligent agent #$knowsAbout certain things, and having #$beliefs (and possibly #$goals) concerning those things may influence its actions. As with agents generally, an intelligent agent might be a single individual or might consist of a group of individual agents (see #$MultiIndividualAgent). Thus persons are intelligent agents, and so are certain social beings like business and government organizations. Some non-human instances of #$Vertebrate that seem to be sentient and somewhat intelligent, such as (arguably) dogs and horses, can also be considered intelligent agents. BFO Definition: An occurrent at or in which processual entities can be located. COSMO note: this concept in COSMO is very generic,a nd can be used to specify a spatiotemporal region of any shape. To specify a spatiotemporal region of a more defined shape, use 'TimeAndPlace', for which the spatial shape of the region will depend on the 'location' component of the instance defined. BFO Examples: the spatiotemporal region occupied by a human life, the spatiotemporal region occupied by the development of a cancer tumor, the spatiotemporal context occupied by a process of cellular meiosis spatiotemporal_region A specialization of #$IntelligentAgent. Each instance of #$SocialBeing is an intelligent agent whose status as an agent is acknowledged within some social system, and who is capable of playing certain social roles within that system. Note that in many (but not all) cases, a #$SocialBeing will have certain rights and responsibilities associated with his/her/its status within the relevant social system. For agents who are granted rights and responsibilities under some legal system, see the specialization #$LegalAgent. Other notable specializations of #$SocialBeing are #$Person and #$Organization. bd58a49e-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A QualitativeAttributeValue is the value of some AttributeType which is not expressed in quantitative measures. It can be an attribute of an abstract thing or of a concrete physical object. NOTE that adjectives expressing qualities in English often have a nominalized form: 'Red-Redness' or 'Beautiful-Beauty'. When linguistically to 'have @Att-nom' (@Att-nom is the nominalized form of an attribute) is the same as 'to be @Att' where @Att is the adjectival form, the concept will be represented only once, usually in the adjectival form, and nominalized form needs to be referenced to the adjectival by the linguistic processor. A #$Place or area with clustered or scattered buildings and a permanent human population, including cities, settlements, towns, and villages. It does not include #$Locales. NOTE that this is a subtype of PhysicalSpaceRegion and is disjoint with Agent. This is a synonym for 'Settlement': 'Settlement' is a very general concept of some area that has people residing in it, the people in it recognizing the area as having an identity distinct from that of other areas. It can be very small or very large. This is similar to the notion of "Populated Place" used in geographical Databases. OCM thesaurus: the topic of 'Settlements' is described: General statements covering several specific aspects of the physical configuration and material facilities of settlements ranging in size and complexity from a temporary camp to a great metropolis. To distinguish early-stage settlements from more established ones, the term 'Settlement' is reserved for this general concept, and 'EarlySettlement' for an early-stage settlement. acf243a4-24df-41d7-92f0-8a8fd5ad2507 A synonym for 'PopulatedPlace' used in Geographical Information systems. An Artifact-Generic was anything created by an Agent. More useful categories will be the more specific Types. Original COSMO Indented List name: Artifact-Generic_includes_conceptual_works__laws__information_objects_ OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 A collection of things created by #$Agents. These creations may be either tangible (like a hammer, a bowl, or a bridge) or intangible (like a set of laws, a #$KnowledgeBase, or Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). Thus, the collection of #$Artifact-Generics is partitioned into #$Artifact and #$Artifact-Intangible (q.v.). An Authority is an IntelligentAgent who has created a Rule. Usually, the Rule will be communicated to other Agents to follow (for some purpose), but in a special case an Authority (e.g. an individual person) may create a rule intended only for the Authority itself to follow e.g. a personal code of behavior). 'Authority' is a Role, and an individual Agent does not have to be classified as an Authority, unless the Agent particiates in some relation that requires and Authority. The class of Synonyms has two uses: (1) When a synonymous term is included as a subtype of Synonym, it allows searching for a Type by more than one term, in the case where the alternative term(s) are also unique in the ontology. For example, where Cyc class names (but not meanings) have been changed, the Cyc term may also be included as a Synonym. We use the isaSynonymOf relation to relate Synonym classes to the class with the base name. (2) when used with the 'hasSynonym' relation, instances of Synonym can specify the context (such as namespace) in which the second term is a synonym of the first, and can indicate the overall frequency with which the term in that context actually has the same meaning as the base term. Since there can be multiple instances of the same synonymous term, it is represented as a datatype String entity. NOTE that instances of Synonym need to have unique id's as their identifiers in the ontology, so it is recommended that the unique ID's be generated by prefixing a namespace to the synonymous term that is pointed to by the 'hasSynonymousTerm' property of the Synonym instance. Thus if some term has the synonym 'process' in the PSL context, the instance of Synonym that specifies that relation can be named, e.g. 'PSL$process'. The general English contexts, where words may be ambiguous, is indicated by the namespace prefix 'engen'. A collection of spatially-localized individuals, including various actions and events as well as physical objects. Each instance of #$InformationBearingThing (or IBT ) is an item that contains information (for an agent who knows how to interpret it). Examples: a copy of the novel Moby Dick; a signal buoy; a photograph; an elevator sign in Braille; a map; a US dollar bill; a resume; a musical score; copies of the #$CycProgram. For representations of the propositional content of information bearing things, see #$PropositionalInformationThing; but note that not all IBTs have a propositional content (cf. #$ArtObject). An important specialization of #$InformationBearingThing is #$InformationBearingObject, which comprises all of those IBTs that are also physical objects (i.e. #$PartiallyTangibles). Though often a subtle task in particular contexts, it is important to distinguish the various specializations of #$InformationBearingThing from those of #$AspatialInformationStore (whose instances are the chunks of information instantiated in particular IBTs; see #$instantiationOfAIT) and from those of #$ConceptualWork (whose instances are the conceptual or artistic creations that are instantiated in particular IBTs; see #$instantiationOfWork). For instance, #$TextString is a specialization of #$AspatialInformationStore, #$TextualMaterial is a specialization of #$InformationBearingThing, and #$TextualPCW is a specialization of #$ConceptualWork; to conflate any of these with another would be to make a category error . Also note that events in which information is transferred (see #$InformationTransferEvent) are not considered instances of #$InformationBearingThing. Rather, such transfer events have as one of their participants (see #$actors) some instance of #$InformationBearingThing; though in cases where IBTs are themselves events this will require distinguishing very finely between the event that encodes the information and the event that is the information transfer. See also the sense-modality-based specializations, #$SoundInformationBearingThing and #$VisualInformationBearingThing. be436e7e-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 The collection of wholly intangible individuals, a specialization of both #$Intangible and #$Individual. Instances of #$IntangibleIndividual are immaterial, and thus do not have mass, color, or other tangible qualities. Examples include mathematical objects (such as numbers, functions, and relations), attributes, time intervals, space regions, and events. Excluded are sets and collections because, although intangible, they are not individuals. IntangibleIndividual* A connected part of any space, physical or abstract. A Region does not have to be empty, but can be occupied by solid objects. For an empty region of space see 'FreeSpaceRegion'. NOTE that Region is disjoint with PhysicalObject, but not disjoint with Object (which can be abstract). A Feature is classified as an Object though it may also be a Region. BFO (SpatialRegion): Definition: A continuant at or in which other continuants can be located. COSMO note: in BFO, a SpatialRegion is the union of: Line, Point, Surface, and Volume. This is close to the present concept of 'Region', but those terms in COSMO are more abstract. A Feature is an Object or Region within the ConvexHull of an Object. The Object may be abstract. existsInContext is most useful to relate fictional, nythical, or hypothetical characters to the contexts in which they appear. It can be used to refer to the 'Real World', but that may be in most cases the default context that needs no explicit reference.