Transcript DSC Cloud – Semantic Effort
Information Artifact Ontology: General Background Barry Smith 1
Military Doctrine and Standardization of Terminology
3rd Century BC Standardized beacon signals used by Chinese military along Great Wall 1792 Drill manual for the units of the Continental Army to respond uniformly to commands during the Revolutionary War 1943 General James Gavin’s Training Memorandum on the Employment of Airborne Forces 2
General James Gavin, On to Berlin: Battles
of an Airborne Commander 1943-1946
for success of the D-Day invasion
‘one of our most critical needs was to standardize the operating practices of our forces. … even simple terminology had to be agreed upon. … British flew in what they called “bomber stream” formations, We preferred troop-carrier group formations of 36 planes that flew in a V ... We referred to landing area as the “jump area,” the British called it “drop zone,” …’ 3
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Current state • • • DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms (Joint Publication 1-02) New military dictionaries and terminology artifacts continue to be developed Dominant ethos: Library Science (all terminologies are equal), Lexicography (logical consistency of definitions is not important) 6
Two kinds of data 1. Data about entities in the world (topics, subject-matters) standard ontologies 2. Data about the information artifacts in which these entities are represented (= metadata) Information Artifact Ontology and extensions, including IAO-Intel 7
Information Content Entities (ICEs) • • ICEs are about something in reality (they have this something as a subject; they represent, or mention or describe this something; they inform us about this something). Aboutness may be identifiable from different perspectives. Thus one analyst may interpret a given ICE as being about the geography of a given encampment; another may view it as providing information about the morale of those encamped there.
Information artifact • (roughly) an entity created through some deliberate act or acts by one or more human beings, and which endures through time, potentially in multiple (for example digital or printed) copies Examples: a diagram on a sheet of paper, a video file, a map on a computer monitor, an article in a newspaper, a message on a network, the output of some querying process in a computer memory 9
What IAO is for • • • IAO is not designed to replace existing ontological or other standards lots of documents exist conforming to lots of different standards purpose of IAO is to allow generation of the needed metadata in a uniform, non-redundant and algorithmically processable fashion 10
Sample terms in IAO Report Summary Diagram Overlay Assessment Estimate List Order Matrix Template 11
Attributes of Information Artifacts • • • Examples –
Purpose
– Lifecycle Stage (draft, finished version, revision) – Language, –
Format
–
Provenance
– Source (person, organization) These are generic attributes, common to all areas IAO will contain a Low-Level Ontology module for each dimension 12
Generic Purpose Attributes – Descriptive purpose: scientific paper, newspaper article, after-action report – Prescriptive purpose: legal code, license, statement of rules of engagement – Directive purpose (of specifying a plan or method for achieving something): instruction, manual, protocol – Designative purpose: a registry of members of an organization, a phone book, a database linking proper names of persons with their social security numbers 13
Other IAO-Intel Attribute Dimensions
Role in the Intelligence Process (JP 3-0, III-11)
Priority Intelligence Requirement (PIR) Commander’s Critical Information Requirement (CCIR) Essential Element of Information (EEI) Essential Element of Friendly Information (EEFI)
Confidence Level (JP 2.0, Appendix A)
Highly Likely Likely Even Chance Unlikely Highly Unlikely
Discipline (JP 2.0, I-5)
Legal Ideology Religion Propaganda
Intelligence Excellence (JP 2.0, II-6)
Anticipatory Timely Accurate Usable Intelligence Signal Human Rumor intelligence Web intelligence Complete Relevant Objective Available
Use of IAO-Intel – Example: Digitalizing an MCOO
• IA #1 - Modified Combined Obstacle Overlay (MCOO) - a joint intelligence preparation of the operational environment product used to portray the militarily significant aspects of the operational environment, such as obstacles restricting military movement, key geography, and military objectives.
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Digitalizing an MCOO • • Annotations to the attributes of IA#1 – ICE: MCOO – IBE: Acetate Sheet – uses-symbology MIL-STD-2525C – authored-by person #4644 Annotations relating to the aboutness of IA#1 – Avenue of Approach – – Strategic Defense Belt Amphibious Operations – Objective 16
top level Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) mid-level Information Artifact Ontology
(IAO)
Ontology for Biomedical Investigations
(OBI)
domain level
Anatomy Ontology (FMA*, CARO) Cell Ontology (CL) Cellular Component Ontology (FMA*, GO*) Environment Ontology (EnvO) Subcellular Anatomy Ontology (SAO) Sequence Ontology (SO*) Protein Ontology (PRO*)
Spatial Ontology
(BSPO) Infectious Disease Ontology (IDO*) Phenotypic Quality Ontology (PaTO) Molecular Function (GO*) Biological Process Ontology (GO*) Extension Strategy + Modular Organization 17
top level Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) mid-level (generic hub)
Information Artifact Ontology(IAO)
IAO-Science domain level (spokes populating downwards) IAO Biology IAO Physics IAO Intel Navy IAO-Intel IAO Intel Army IAO Intel FBI IAO-Computing IAO Software EMO Email Ontology
Each module built by downward population from its parent 18
Users of BFO
Examples
AIRS Ontologies cROP Ontologies MilPortal Ontologies NIF Standard Ontologies OBO Foundry Ontologies OAE Ontology of Adverse Events EnvO Emotion Ontology IDO Infectious Disease Ontology (NIAID) US Army Biometrics Ontology http://www.ifomis.org/bfo/users 19
Continuant Occurrent BFO 20
Continuant Occurrent Independent Continuant Specifically Dependent Continuant Generically Dependent Continuant BFO 21
Continuant Occurrent Independent Continuant Specifically Dependent Continuant
is tied to just one bearer
Generically Dependent Continuant BFO 22
BFO Continuant Occurrent Independent Continuant Specifically Dependent Continuant
is tied to just one bearer
Generically Dependent Continuant
can migrate from one bearer to another
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BFO Continuant Occurrent Independent Continuant this man, that book Specifically Dependent Continuant this excitation pattern, that pattern of piles of ink Generically Dependent Continuant universals this gene sequence, this digital image instances 24
Continuant Independent Continuant Specifically Dependent Continuant Generically Dependent Continuant Material Entity Quality Disposition Role BFO 25
Continuant Independent Continuant Specifically Dependent Continuant Generically Dependent Continuant Material Entity Quality Information Bearing Entity depends_on Information Quality Entity BFO IAO 26
Continuant BFO IAO Independent Continuant Specifically Dependent Continuant Generically Dependent Continuant Material Entity Quality Information Content Entity 27
Continuant BFO IAO Independent Continuant Specifically Dependent Continuant Generically Dependent Continuant Material Entity Quality Information Content Entity Information Bearing Entity depends_on Information Quality Entity concretized_by 28
Independent Continuant Specifically Dependent Continuant Generically Dependent Continuant Material Entity Quality Information Content Entity Information Bearing Entity depends_on Information Quality Entity this hard drive, that book this excitation pattern, that pattern of piles of ink concretized_by universals this pdf file this digital image instances 29
Geographic Coordinates Set
Universals and Instances (from Bill Mandrick)
designates Geopolitical Entity instance_ of has location Latrine instance_of Spatial Region Distance Measurement Result instance_of has location Well instance_ of Village Name designates is_a Village instance_of instance_of ‘VT 334 569’ ’16 meters’ measurement_of ‘Khanabad Village’ located near located in
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BFO: Independent Continuant IAO and BFO BFO: Generically Dependent Continuant BFO: Specifically Dependent Continuant Information Bearing Entity (IBE) Information Content Entity (ICE) Information Structure Entity (ISE) Information Quality Entity (Pattern) (IQE) 31
Information Artifacts artifact =def. an entity created through some deliberate act or acts by one or more human beings and which endures through time information artifact: an artifact that created to serve as a bearer of information (a) information bearing entity (IBE) – a hard drive, a passport, a piece of paper with a drawing of a map (b) information content entity (ICE) – an entity which is about something and which can potentially exist in multiple (for example digital or printed) copies – a jpg file, a pdf file
IAO: information content entity =def. an entity that is generically dependent on some artifact and stands in the relation of aboutness to some entity Problems of non-referring information entities Problems of information structure entities 33
Types and tokens
Copyable information artifacts can exist both as
tokens Peirce
and as types
Peirce
Token = the particular information artifact of interest, tied to some particular physical information bearer: the photographic image on this piece of paper retrieved from this enemy combatant Type = The copyable information content that is carried by the artifact in question. The same photographic image type may be printed out in multiple paper tokens
Warning: this is not the same as the instance-class distinction
The Dublin Core: How not to solve the problem of creating consistent information artifact metadata
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI)
an open organization supporting innovation in metadata design and best practices across the metadata ecology http://dublincore.org/ Resource (as in ‘RDF’) + 15 basic ‘elements’:
0. RESOURCE 1. TITLE 2. CREATOR 3. SUBJECT 4. DESCRIPTION 5. PUBLISHER 6. CONTRIBUTORS 7. DATE 8. TYPE 9. FORMAT 10. IDENTIFIER 11. SOURCE 12. LANGUAGE 13. RELATION 14. COVERAGE 15. RIGHTS MANAGEMENT
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) An open organization supporting innovation in metadata design and best practices across the metadata ecology http://dublincore.org/
The Core • Resource (as in ‘RDF’) + 15 basic ‘elements’:
0. RESOURCE 1. TITLE 2. CREATOR 3. SUBJECT 4. DESCRIPTION 5. PUBLISHER 6. CONTRIBUTORS 7. DATE 8. TYPE 9. FORMAT 10. IDENTIFIER 11. SOURCE 12. LANGUAGE 13. RELATION 14. COVERAGE 15. RIGHTS MANAGEMENT
1) What’s a “
resource ”?
A resource is anything that has identity. Familiar examples include an electronic document, an image, a service (e.g., "today's weather report for Los Angeles"), and a collection of other resources. Assumption: resource = information artifact 2) How do “
elements
” apply to “resources”?
An Element is a characteristic that a resource may “have”, such as a Title, Publisher, or Subject.
The Core (cont.)
The same resource can be instantiated in different ways
Format
:
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource. Examples of dimensions include size and duration. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as the list of Internet Media Types [ MIME ]. Example: image/jpeg.
The Core (cont.)
What describes the
content / topic / subject-matter
?
Title
: The name given to the resource.
Description
: An account of the content of the resource. Description may include but is not limited to: an abstract, table of contents, reference to a graphical representation of content or a free-text account of the content.
Subject
: The topic of the content of the resource. Typically, a subject will be expressed as keywords or key phrases or classification codes that describe the topic of the resource.
Benefits of Dublin Core • • • Available in multiple formats W3C recommended Mapping to PROV
Problems with Dublin Core • • • • Scope not defined (‘anthing that has identity’) Does not provide logical definitions, but relies rather on vague natural language expressions (including use of “scare” “quotes” to warn the user that terms are not intended literally) Provides only suggestive guidance as to use of associated standards Does not interoperate well with other (topic) ontologies
Confuses words and things •
Source
: A reference to a resource from which the present resource is derived. The present resource may be derived from the Source resource in whole or part.
Engages in sloppy bundling
Type
: The nature or genre of the content of the resource. Type includes terms describing general categories, functions, genres, or aggregation levels for content.
What is ‘content of the resource’?
Is the nature of the content distinct from the nature of the resource? No taxonomic organization, but rather a tangled hierarchy No distinction between things (continuants) and processes (occurrents) –
consider performance of a work
Does not address the goals of a Metadata Ontology
• • • Ability to expand consistently to new application areas Ability to gracefully integrate with domain ontologies and with other IA-related ontologies Ability to represent metadata of different categories – Complex application-specific content • specific ways in which one IA relates to another IA – Content vs. Bearers of content
Requirements to Achieve These Goals
• • • Conformance to ontology best practices – http://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Distributed_Deve lopment_of_a_Shared_Semantic_Resource – http://techwiki.openstructs.org/index.php/Ontology_Be st_Practices – http://kmi.open.ac.uk/events/iswc07-semantic-web intro/pdf/5.%20Ontology%20Design.pdf
Conformance to an upper level ontology as starting point for coherent definitions Separation of aspects of an information artifact such as physical bearer, content, content organization
DC Does Not Conform to Best Practices
Term Name: LocationPeriodOrJurisdiction URI: http://purl.org/dc/terms/LocationPeriodOrJurisdiction Label: Location, Period, or Jurisdiction Definition: A location, period of time, or jurisdiction.
LOCATION PERIOD OR JURISDICTION is defined in the DC hierarchy as a subclass of LOCATION
Problems with verbal definitions – PROVENANCE – “A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation.” – The same definition is applied to the class and the property: PROVENANCE STATEMENT that is the Range of PROVENANCE is defined in exactly the same way.
Does Not Conform to an ULO • • DC does not conform to an upper level ontology and does not show signs of downward development from more general to more specific terms.
As a result – Generic element associations are absent or arbitrary or informal. – If such associations were established, they would need to be established manually instead of being inherited. For example, there are such classes as AGENT and AGENT CLASS where AGENT CLASS is defined as “A group of agents” but no formal relation with the class AGENT is asserted.
Does Not Conform to an ULO (cont.)
• • • In the absence of a high-level single hierarchy, the relations between classes are not clear. For example PROVENANCE is defined as “A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation” seems to overlap with CREATOR, CONTRIBUTOR, and IS VERSION OF. But how?
Limited Usability of DC • • DC does not try to separately address such aspects of an information artifact as its physical bearer, content, and content organization Will not allow for rich explications and annotations of document repositories, in particular repositories of military documents, and for various classifications of documents that are based on the content or bearer
Shimon Edelman’s
Riddle of Representation
two humans, a monkey, and a robot are looking at a piece of cheese; what is common to the representational processes in their visual systems? 54
Answer:
The cheese, of course 55
The real cheese
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Concretization
Each IA is
concretized_by
at least one IQE (Information Quality Entity) The same IA can be
concretized
in multiple different media (paper, silicon, neuron …) 57
Generically dependent continuants such as plans, laws …
are concretized in specifically dependent continuants (the plan in your head, the protocol being realized by your research team, the law being implemented by this government agency) 58
Types and tokens
A A A
One type, three tokens A type is a pattern Patterns can be complex
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fragment of the
War and Peace
pattern 60
War and Peace
is an instance of the universal
novel
Independent Continuant Specifically Dependent Continuant Generically Dependent Continuant instance_of instance_of This bound copy of War and Peace depends_on War and Peace quality instance_of The novel War and Peace 61
What is a work of literature?
• Is
War and Peace
a kind or an instance?
If
War and Peace
were a kind, and the copies of
War and Peace
in my library and in your library were instances, then there would be many
War(s) and Peaces.
Hence
War and Peace
is an instance. 62
There are not two Declarations of Independence
There can be two
copies
of the US Declaration of Independence There cannot be two US Declarations of Independence There cannot be subkinds of the US Declaration of Independence Hence the US Declaration of Independent is an instance and not a kind .
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Rule for universals
Their names are pluralizable
There can be three people There cannot be three Michelle Obamas.
Information Content Entities are GDCs = entities which can exist in many copies 64
Generically dependent continuants are distinct from universals
they have a different kind of provenance ◦ ◦ ◦ Aspirin as product of Bayer GmbH aspirin as molecular structure This Financial Report is submitted to the SEC 65
BFO: Independent Continuant
IAO and BFO
BFO: Generically Dependent Continuant BFO: Specifically Dependent Continuant Information Bearing Entity (IBE) Information Content Entity (ICE) Information Structure Entity (ISE) Information Quality Entity (Pattern) (IQE)
Information Bearing Entities – IBEs • • • An IBE is a material entity that has been created to serve as a bearer of information. IBEs are either (1) self-sufficient material wholes, or (2) proper material parts of such wholes. Examples under (1): a hard drive, a paper printout (e.g., a report) Examples under (2): a specific sector on a hard drive, a single page of a paper printout.
Information Quality Entities (IQEs) • • • An IQE is the pattern on an IBE in virtue of which it is a bearer of some information An IQE exists in a given IBE because of a certain patterned arrangement for example of ink or other chemicals, or of electromagnetic excitations.
Every ICE is concretized by at least one IQE
Information Structure Entities (ISEs) • Information Structure Entity (ISE) is a structural part of an ICE, for example an empty cell in a spreadsheet; or a blank Microsoft Word file. ISEs thus capture part of what is involved when we talk about the ‘format’ of an IA.
Organization of IAO-Intel – IA ‘IA’ refers either – to some combination of ICEs and ISEs (roughly: the IA as body of copyable information content); or – to some concretization of ICEs and ISEs in some IBE in which some IQE inheres (the information artifact is: this content here and now, on this specific computer screen or this printed page).
Different information artifact kinds will differ in different ways along these dimensions, as illustrated in Table 2.
IA IBE
MS Word file (.doc, .docx) KML file Hard drive (magnetized sector) Hard drive (magnetized sector) JPEG file (.jpg) Hard drive (magnetized sector) KML JPEG format
ISE
MS Word format Email file Varies
ICE
Map overlay Image Hard drive (magnetized sector) Internet Message Format (e.g., RFC 5322 compliant) Message USMTF Message file Passport A specific government network Paper document; (may include photographs, RFID tags) Title Deed Official paper document Report Varies Overlay Sheet ( e.g. Map Overlay Sheet) Acetate sheet USMTF Format Message ID formats, security marking formats … Name, Personal data, Passport number, Visas Varies Varies Varies Varies MIL-STD-2525 Symbols; FM 101-1-5 Operational Terms and Graphics Map overlay
BFO: Independent Continuant IAO and BFO BFO: Generically Dependent Continuant BFO: Specifically Dependent Continuant Information Bearing Entity (IBE) Information Content Entity (ICE) Information Structure Entity (ISE) Information Quality Entity (Pattern) (IQE)
IAO and BFO (cont.) • • BFO relations between ICEs, ISEs, IQEs and IBEs can be set forth as follows: – ICE generically-depends-on IBE – ISE generically-depends-on IBE – IQE specifically-depends-on IBE – ICE concretized-by IQE – ISE concretized-by IQE IAO contains in addition relations which allow to formulate metadata concerning attributes of IAs such as author, creation date, classification status, and so forth
top level Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) mid-level Information Artifact Ontology
(IAO)
Ontology for Biomedical Investigations
(OBI)
domain level
Anatomy Ontology (FMA*, CARO) Cell Ontology (CL) Cellular Component Ontology (FMA*, GO*) Environment Ontology (EnvO) Subcellular Anatomy Ontology (SAO) Sequence Ontology (SO*) Protein Ontology (PRO*)
Spatial Ontology
(BSPO) Infectious Disease Ontology (IDO*) Phenotypic Quality Ontology (PaTO) Molecular Function (GO*) Biological Process Ontology (GO*) Extension Strategy + Modular Organization 74
OBO Foundry approach extended into other domains (all populating downwards from BFO) NIF Standard IDO Consortium cROP Neuroscience Information Framework Infectious Disease Ontology Common Reference Ontologies for Plants MilPortal.org
Military Ontology AIRS Ontology Suite Intelligence Ontology Suite 75
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Speech acts Acts of thinking* Document acts Language Writing Printing Email … *Mental Functioning Ontology (MFO) 77
Coverage domain of IAO Speech acts Acts of thinking Document acts Writing Printing Email … 78
Generic Purpose Attributes – Descriptive purpose: scientific paper, newspaper article, after-action report – Prescriptive purpose: legal code, license, statement of rules of engagement – Directive purpose (of specifying a plan or method for achieving something): instruction, manual, protocol – Designative purpose: a registry of members of an organization, a phone book, a database linking proper names of persons with their social security numbers 79
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John Searle: start with biology, add speech
The Searle Thesis
Through the performance of speech acts (of promising, marrying, accusing, exchusing) we bring into being ₋ ₋ claims, obligations, ₋ ₋ relations of authority, relations of membership, … = the entities making up the ontology of the social world 83
How, on this view, can institutional entities, endure through time?
• • in the local case: through beliefs, memories, desires – planning a weekly coffee morning with your friends … But what about the global case (where there is no face-to-face contact, where there are many cheaters, where beliefs conflict ontologically)?
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Hernando de Soto Institute for Liberty and Democracy, Lima, Peru Bill Clinton: “The most promising anti-poverty initiative in the world” 85
The de Soto thesis:
documents and document systems are the mechanisms for creating the institutional orders of Western capitalism
The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else,
New York: Basic Books, 2000 86
With the invention of documented claims and obligations
• • • a new dimension of socio-economic reality comes into existence: bank accounts, stocks, shares, bonds, mortgages, credit cards these form enduring social networks – document systems – of entirely new types debts become information entities analogous to digital artifacts 87
From speech act theory to document act theory
Generalizing the de Soto thesis: documents and document systems are the mechanisms for creating all institutional orders of modern civilization 88
Identity 89
Standardization An extralegal standardized sales contract for a one acre parcel in the outskirts of Arusha, including the involvement of witnesses in the preparation of the document and the use of fingerprints to ensure the authenticity of the document.
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Standardized documents • allow standardized transactions • improve the flow of communications • allow assets to be described using standard categories, so as to enable comparisons • allow the transition from ad hoc narratives (as in ancient title deeds) to structured representations • communication is advanced because signals are abbreviated • supports the creation of more effective registries
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A. N. Whitehead It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case.
Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.
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Standardized documents enable – new types of distributed ownership through stocks, shares, pensions, … – currency notes – new types of legal accountability – new types of business organization – new types of massively planned social agency – democracy – the state – law … 93
Scope of document act theory
• • • • the social and institutional (deontic, quasi legal) powers of documents the sorts of things we can do with documents the social interactions in which documents play an essential role the enduring institutional systems to which documents belong 94
• The ontology not only of capital, bankruptcy, stock market … • • • • • • • but also of the Holy Roman Empire the Swedish language the United Nations the internet a symphony concert urban planning mathematicians is to be understood in terms of the different sorts of documents which these phenomena involve 95
How to do things with words (speech act theory)
1. We represent how things are: record, report, description, assertion … 2. We try to get people to do things:
request, order, command …
3. We commit ourselves to doing things
promise, agreement, …
4. We bring about changes in the world through utterances
congratulating, blessing, forgiving …
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How to do things with documents (document act theory)
1. We represent how things are: map, chemical diagram, x-ray image, … 2. We try to get people to do things:
blueprint, musical score, plan of battle …
3. We commit ourselves to doing things
contract, planning agreement, flow chart …
4. We bring about changes in the world through document acts
organigram, act of parliament, license, diploma …
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How to do things with diagrams 98
From speech acts to document acts Documents can be copied, modified, stored … Documents can be aggregated (attachment of liens …) Documents can be meshed together (for example into plans and sub-plans – as in a musical score, plans for a military operation) Documents can be algorithmically executable (Turbotax …) 99
John Searle: Directions of fit • • • world-to-mind: I promise I will mow your lawn tomorrow mind-to-world: I see that my lawn has been mowed
automatic mind-to-world-and-world-to-
mind: I say “I promise to pay you $100 dollars” and thereby make it true that I
promise to pay you $100 dollars
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Directions of fit for documents • • • world-to-mind: a plan is formulated to change the world (to make it conform to the mind of the planner …) mind-to-world: a report is published evaluating the success of the execution of the plan
automatic mind-to-world-and-world-to-
mind: Act of Parliament is published declaring that such-and-such is the law and such-and-such is the law 101
(musical) directions of fit
•
world-to-score:
the score tells the world how to shape itself to create a performance that is in conformance with the score •
score-to-world:
the score, when the performance is completed, serves as a record of the performance •
automatic score-to-world-and-world-to score:
Berlioz completes the score and thereby brings into being a work that is precisely in conformance to the score 102
Individual performers may use their scores in different ways
1. they may mark up their copies of the score to add specific instructions for their own use 2. they may mark up their copy of the score to record errors in their own performance 103
what begins as a plan, ends as a record 104
Blueprint what begins as a plan • • ends as a record of process of product 105
From speech acts to document acts Searle, Tuomela, Gilbert, Bratman deal with simple local interaction of cooperative agents communicating by speech “Would you like to dance?” “Let’s lift this table” “Shall we cook dinner together?” “Waiter, bring me a beer!” …
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Scott J. Shapiro, “Massively Shared Agency”, 2013 [Bratman, Searle …] ‘are unable to account for the existence of massively shared agency.
they ‘have largely concentrated on analyzing shared activities among highly committed participants. The working assumption has been that those who sing duets or paint houses together are all committed to the success of the activity.’
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Shapiro: To adapt standard theory of collective agency to deal with massively shared actions we need to add authority
Authorities are … “mesh creating” mechanisms. When disputes between participants break out with respect to the proper way to proceed, authorities can create a mesh between the subplans of the participants by demanding that both sides accept a certain solution.
Basic for Shapiro’s theory of the nature of law
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Conclusion Documents, as much as authority, are what make possible the sorts of massively shared agency we find in business corporations, universities, organized religions, governments, legal systems, standing armies
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