Layer 6 - Logic - Green

Every time a manager or an investigator composes a document, he or she is engaged in logic design. Describing logical requirements – steps in processes, classification of similar items of concepts, or setting priorities – is surely an instinctive trait of our species. We can't leave things alone, we must classify.

The challenge is in converting such representations into useful computerized form. “Fluidity” defines the ease by which this process takes place in an organization. In bridging gaps between humans and computing machines, several families of logic design tools have been developed, but they typically require quantum efforts to learn and they are quite inefficient and difficult to manage, given changing realities. There has been an ongoing movement in systems development to depend more and more on words and acronyms to provide meaning (the semantic movement), but even clear, useful semantic data can be difficult to understand when constrained by complex structures and arcane languages that do not clearly lay out the context in which they are used.

This is where the Allen model gives grounds for optimism. The STE (Semantic Taxonomy Engine) model can fill an important role in empowering knowledgeable non-technicians to express decision models of interest to them professionally in computerized, useful form.