Very Special Areas

Disclaimer:

This is an attempt to categorize all human knowledge, as exemplified by the jargon used by experts in each field of study, using the trigrams of the I Ching. Allow me to repeat, "all human knowledge". 

I have always scoffed at computers in pulp science fiction stories that seem to contain information far in excess of what should be required for their appointed tasks. "How would a hovercraft airflow design computer know that phlebotomy was practiced by Egyptian barbers?", I whined ... 

Apparently, irritation is actually the father of invention and ability is obviously the mother. Irritation plants a seed which must be gestated by ability. Irritation without ability is an onanistic morass. Necessity is a creepy bachelor uncle, at best. Necessity is the procurer of tawdry compromises.

At any rate, I now find myself confronting a task that is annoyingly far beyond the bounds of even my well endowed delusions of grandeur. I can only hope that my inevitable failure will prove instructive to the dozens of people worldwide who would actually have been able to benefit from the intended synergy of a vocabulary such as this.

In effect, this disclaimer is the equivalent of the notice on a package of peanuts that says, "Warning: May contain peanuts".

Introduction

These complementary constraints delimit the goal of this design.

This design uses the following eight Types:

These Types are presented as pure iconic activities. The overwhelming majority of 'real world' activities involve combinations of these Types. Your 'job' probably requires all eight Types over the course of time. The Specialized vocabulary Areas will be defined by all the possible binary combinations of these Types.

I guess that what I am trying to say, is that the Types below represent eight distilled idealized isometric components of all human activity, so don't worry overmuch about the actual overlap among these activities in everyday life.

External Activities:

Science

The codification of relationships and principals.

Science includes any search for Prescience which can be used to predict or control the outcome of any human endeavor. These searches need not be formal. In fact, they occur whenever a baby picks something up and sticks it in its mouth.

Scientific endeavors may be mental, physical or social.

Business

To create, store, move, change or exchange for profit.

Any activity that increases (or decreases, unfortunately) one's personal property is within the province of Business. 'Property' can include objects and all forms of money or physical space, but not knowledge or social influence. Of course, knowledge or social influence may be precursors to or results of business dealings, but they are not strictly part of the vocabulary of 'pure' business.

Management is actually a combination of Law and Education even though it is associated with Business for usability reasons. Leadership is mostly a matter of Art and Education.

Law

Creating, interpreting or enforcing rules of human interaction.

Science discovers rules, Law makes them up. This actually isn't a criticism, human interaction requires boundaries and most of those boundaries cannot be found quickly through experiment because there are too many uncontrollable variables involved.

Laws reduce the speed with which we cheat and kill one another (in other words, Law limits both Business and Sport).

Sport

Contending with an audience or with risk.

Risk is really the essential attribute of Sport. Any activity that engages the attention of unfettered humans is risky by definition. A performer puts her ego (if nothing else) in danger with every show. Failing on stage is called 'dying' for good reason.

The magnitude of the risk is unimportant. A game of solitaire is as much a Sport as the final game of the World Cup, despite the imbalance in potential ego loss. Business attempts to minimize risk, Sport requires it.

Social actions can be among both the best and the worst parts of Sport. Military actions are usually within the worst part of Sport.

Internal Activities:

Art

Competence in service of an aesthetic.

Art covers all aspiration to perfection. The actual effort may pursue some purely emotional state using a medium such as song, or the effort may design something entirely mundane, such as a jet turbine fan blade.

Any aesthetic is equally valid as a basis for Art, although some goals may be generally considered impractical, useless, harmful or immoral. Ideally, any activity should contain a modicum of Art. Competence grows through use, like any other muscle.

Education

The transfer of useful information.

This covers both teaching and learning, but the majority of the vocabulary will likely be created and used by the teaching side of the relationship. Education need not be formal as long as there is a benefit to the student. On the other hand, some formal 'teaching' does not really qualify as Education.

Employment

Effort expended to fulfill the dreams of others.

The parts of a job that move one towards a personal goal are not Employment, even if they are performed for someone else. Most jobs or professions are mixtures of tasks and even tasks that are critical to the job may not be fulfilling to a specific worker.

The essence of Employment is the willingness to put aside one's personal goals. This is actually a good thing when used judiciously. If every human on Earth was unable to help others for selfless reasons, wolves would be our masters.

Leisure

Action and inaction that doesn't have a defined goal.

This includes everything that isn't covered elsewhere, but someone who appears to be doing nothing may actually be waiting or thinking in pursuit of something critical. Leisure can be mental, physical or social and is probably most closely associated with casual noncompetitive 'fun'.

Social activities that are oriented towards acquisition of a 'mate' are more properly classified as combinations of Business and Risk. Casual activities with a secure mate are more likely to be Leisure oriented (and therefore more 'fun').

In the tables below, Leisure tends to be associated with real estate, housing, people and social activities in general because 'fun' is sadly lacking in many 'serious' disciplines.

The Specification of Everything

It is important to remember that each of these Areas contains 16.7 million terms. The major focus of theses tables is to provide a logical superstructure for the overall vocabulary so that a casual user can easily drill down to a specific term. 

These Areas will contain vocabulary, useful functions and links to related subjects. An Area is not just a list of words, it should be a complete toolkit for understanding and dealing with an entire problem space, discipline or subject.

These tables contain unused Areas to provide for future growth. I am reasonably sure that the human race doesn't know everything yet.

Some of the Areas are linked to example vocabulary Blocks. These example Blocks would be just one small group of terms (one of sixty-four thousand Blocks) within the overall structure of that Area.

General

Business

Science

Applied Arts

Appendix:

• This design uses the following eight Types:
  • External Activities:
    • Science
    • Business
    • Law
    • Sport
  • Internal Activities:
    • Art
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Leisure
• The Specification of Everything 
• General
  • Basic
  • Sport
  • Law
  • Art
• Business
  • Management
  • Manufacturing
  • Finance
  • Services
• Science
  • Science
  • Life Science
  • Social Science
  • Medicine
• Applied Arts
  • Education
  • Technology
  • Earth Science
  • Engineering