One can
view these technology layers symbolically as shown on this slide.
The vertical
axis represents semantic content, or the degree to which data can be
abstracted to represent information centered around specific arguments being
postulated. The horizontal axis represents the continuum of the data space which
provides the necessary evidence to support or refute specific argument
constructs..
Data is gathered from events occurring in the real world as measured by
sensors (to include humans) and as available in various open source including the World
Wide Web and classified databases. These data contain inherent semantic value
that is largely derived from the language which is used to describe them. I have termed this the “index space”. You might think of “key words” as one form
of “index” derived from an understanding of the meaning of symbols used in the
English language as represented in a word document . At a higher level of abstraction, you might define the “index
space” using “concepts”. I’ve represented one document as the large
white bar in the information space and shown it’s key words linked into the index space.
Above the Index Space are
evidence models which are derived from intent models and argument models for
the hypothesis under consideration that enable the association of (“index”)
evidence to arguments being
postulated. These models help both to
drive the search for supporting evidence, and provide the metric for scoring the value
of new evidence found. A document that has
high semantic content has more keywords that are included in the index space than one with
lower semantic content and thus is easier to find during search. In general, documents with low
semantic content require more knowledge and tailoring of search terms in order to guarantee
successful retrieval ( template match).
The index space provides the
basic evidence layer that can be mapped onto projections of the arguments through the
use of intent models or other such constructs. These evidence data then are the basis for supporting or
refuting arguments postulated and being reasoned.
I will now
delve deeper into the technologies of each layer.