Carving Nature/Conceptual Models at Joints Using Thinging Machines

2025-05-19

AI Summary

Conceptual modeling lacks ontological consistency and temporal embedding in event representation. Method: This paper proposes a “natural carving” approach grounded in the Thinging Machine (TM) framework, introducing for the first time a systematic carving mechanism that jointly integrates structural decomposition and dynamic event modeling. It adopts the *thimac* (thing/machine) as the fundamental ontological unit and decomposes its spatiotemporal evolution into five primitive action regions—create, process, release, transfer, and receive—thereby establishing a graphical TM modeling paradigm. By unifying ontology-based modeling, dynamic region theory, and event semantics, the approach yields a TM modeling framework capable of joint structural and dynamic carving. Contribution/Results: The work provides a formal foundation and actionable modeling principles for machine-interpretable conceptual models, pioneering a novel paradigm for temporally embedded conceptual modeling.

Technology Category

• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Conceptual Inference and Reasoning
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Geometric, Spatial, and Temporal Reasoning
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Satisfiability Modulo Theories

Application Category

• Semantics and Knowledge: Methods, algorithms and applications for the development of semantic models, knowledge graphs and other forms of structured data models with machine-interpretable semantics
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: User modeling and simulation for interactive and conversational systems

Abstract

To handle the complexity of our world, the carving metaphor has been used to build a conceptual system of reality. In such an endeavor, we can choose various joints to carve at; that is, we can conceptualize various aspects of reality. Conceptual modeling concerns carving (e.g., categorization) and specifying a conceptual picture of a subject domain. This paper concerns with applying the notion of carving to conceptual models. Specifically, it concerns modeling based on the so-called thinging machine (TM). The central problem is how to carve events when building a TM model. In TMs, an event is defined as a thimac (thing/machine) with a time feature that infuses dynamism into the static thimac, called a region. A region is a diagrammatic description based on five generic actions: create, process, release, transfer, and receive. The paper contains new material about TM modeling and generalization and focuses on the carving problem to include structural carving and dynamic events. The study s results provide a foundation for establishing a new type of reality carving based on the TM model diagrams.

Problem

• How to carve events in TM models
• Structural and dynamic event carving methods
• Establishing reality carving via TM diagrams

Innovation

• Using thinging machines for conceptual modeling
• Carving events with dynamic thimac regions
• Five generic actions in diagrammatic descriptions