Schemas Take 1

We have schemas for everything.

We have schemas, or templates, in our minds of what we expect when someone mentions ...

• a person
• a house
• an office
• a trip to the restaurant
• all parts of the physical universe
  
• etc.

These are very helpful. As we learn about something or someone, we "fill in the blanks" of what we expect to learn.
For instance, when thinking about a house that we have never been to, we start filling in the blanks ...

• Where the house is
• Directions to get there
• How many bedrooms
• Does it have a pool!
• etc.
  

Without a previous schema for a house, you would feel utterly lost if somebody was giving you these details!

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Zoetics is a tool that enables us to build visual schemas for non-visible things.
Like ...

• a problem
• a decision
• an event
  
  
• any relationship
  
  
• ordering your daily life
• an entire lifetime
  
  
• running your business
• running a project
  
  
• the movie you just saw
• a great scholarly work
  
• etc. etc. etc.
  

For instance, EVERY problem has 4 components

1. Where we are now
2. Where we want to be
3. What is the Context of the Problem (How does it fit in with the Big Picture)
4. What should we do, if anything
   

When you have a visual schema of this, it makes it much easier to be objective and consider each item in its turn.

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schema definition

(The first three definitions here nail what Zoetics has to offer)

1. A diagrammatic representation; an outline or model.
2. A pattern imposed on complex reality or experience to assist in ... explaining it, mediate perception, or guide response.
(Ref_1)

3. an internal representation of the world; an organization of concepts and actions that can be revised by new information about the world
4. a schematic or preliminary plan [syn: outline, scheme]
(Ref_2)


Ref_1
dictionary.com

Ref_2
Hypertext Webster Gateway
http://www.bennetyee.org/http_webster.cgi

What Could Be ...

As a foundational ontology of life, Zoetics identifies the indispensable concepts and skills that every child, woman, and man should be expert in.

What could be more important?


The THESIS behind ZOETICS

1. Reduce living life to its simplest elements
2. Gain greater understanding and experience with each element
3. Then combine the elements into increasingly complex 'compounds', and thus gaining greater skill, and improving mastery, in living.

Zoetic Table of Elements - ZTOE™ gmail lookup

Ontology, KML, and Reusable Knowledge

Zoetics is ...

1. a foundational Ontology of Life
2. a Knowledge Modeling Language
3. a starter library of Reusable Knowledge Components

It is a set of thinking tools and yet
it is one, cohesive, multi-purpose .... thinking tool ...

1. An ontology is a way to order and organize your thoughts
2. A knowledge modeling language is a way to rearrange, express, and examine your thoughts
3. A knowledge component Is a thought, whether simple or complex

What do you do with this stuff?

1. Categorize / Asset Inventory / Shelves
2. Get to Know, Understand Ideas, Concepts, etc.
   
3. Use them!
   

Definition of Ontology

A systematic arrangement of all of the important categories of objects or concepts which exist in some field of discourse, showing the relations between them.

... When complete, an ontology is a categorization of all of the concepts in some field of knowledge, including the objects and all of the properties, relations, and functions needed to define the objects and specify their actions.

... A simplified ontology may contain only a hierarchical classification (a taxonomy) showing the type subsumption relations between concepts in the field of discourse. An ontology may be visualized as an abstract graph with nodes and labeled arcs representing the objects and relations.

Areas of Application

Arenas to Apply Zoetics

I. Endeavors

Business
Government
Science
Arts & Literature

II. Tools

Technology
Education
Language

III. Living

Leading your life
Relationships
Relating to Life

(Strategies, Tactics, Philosophy & Religion)

How Zoetics Improves Your World

1. Think more thoroughly and completely.
   
2. Communicate more rapidly, with perspective, and potentially more accurately.
   
3. Plan, Work and Assess more consistently, and with the Big Picture in mind.
   
4. Learn in Context, and thus retain and recall more effectively.