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ontology

I’m not sure how to introduce myself. I don’t feel I deserve to call myself an artist or scholar as that connotes a certain level of dedication: I just consume and create worthlessly. However, like anybody else, I have a backlog of notes, ideas, and resources—roughly a few hundred scientific articles, pictures, articles, and so on. Everybody has developed their own way of organising their media to the point that Wikipedia has several different pages regarding ontology and classification.

I’ve never had a reliable way of organising my media and recently looked through library classification methods, but they have an arbitrary reliance on base 10 (decimal) and base 26 (alphabet), biased classes that often put more weight on religion and Western culture, awkward categorisation, and an unintuitive facet mechanic. Moreover, I fundamentally dislike complex linking because I feel it leads one to think in terms of those links when I believe anything can be linked.

Over the course of a few days, I dashed up an original simple organisation system using only nested lists. It is based on my personal understanding of the world and sorts by approach rather than content as it’s much more common for a work to cover multiple topics than it is to take multiple approaches. When works do draw on multiple approaches, they are placed in the highest-level approach. For example, a journalistic article about famed mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan’s effect on the Indian caste system’s scientific literacy would be filed not under 12 for the catch-all of structural mathematics, but rather A2B-IN for ethnicity studies in India.

This uses alphanumeric characters as notations; most categories are denoted by a single Arabic decimal numeral 0-9 or English letter A-Z, with some exceptions. Higher numbers signify increased specialisation, and 0 is reserved for the fundamental logic system of a category. Meanwhile, letters signify equal but different categories.

I divide subjects into six fundamental categories: mathematics deals strictly with logic and its abstractions, natural science seeks to describe the world using mathematical objects, engineering designs tools using the knowledge of the previous, and computer science builds devices that can process information. Meanwhile, social science analyses human interactions, while the arts explore the nature of human desire and expression.

I will not mark this as 1.0.0 until I've used it for several months and found it adequate.

changelog

• version 0.2.0 published 2025-04-11
  • added better descriptions and rewrote some categories
• version 0.1.1 published 2025-03-25
  • fixed formatting issues and typos
  • moved to SemVer
• version 0.1 (first release) published 2025-03-25

the list

0. documentation
   • Anything about the collection itself. Feel free to include a few archival and computing guides here; anything more should go under the appropriate categories.
   1. introduction and tips for access/archival
   2. relevant licenses
1. mathematics
   • Mathematics is first here where other systems put philosophy because mathematics prepares one to analyse the statistics in the sciences, and because modern sentiments seem to indicate science is more solid than philosophy.
   0. formal and mathematical logic
      • Logicism is controversial, hence the distinction.
   1. number theory
      • “There are some people called pure mathematicians who doubt whether two and three make five, because they wonder what two and three even mean…” — running gag from Kjartan Poskitt’s “Murderous Maths” series.
   2. structural mathematics
      • A catch-all for higher levels of mathematical concepts.
   1. algebra
      • Manipulation of variables to find an answer; reverse mathematics.
   2. geometry
      • Points and lines galore; adding dimensions to math.
   3. analysis
      • Turning lines back into numbers.
   4. statistics
      • Statistics is here because it’s infamously about processing the data to show what you want, which has ramifications for pretty much every science and the arts.
2. natural science
   0. physics
      0. experimentation
         • Most metaphysics should be in A101 but some scientific writers approach it from a quantum-physics view of whether we can be said to “understand” something that’s just a bunch of formulae, which should be filed here.
      1. beyond standard model (BSM)
         • This includes theory of everything, superstring theory, etc.; basically anything presented as theoretically testable.
      1. quantum physics
      2. classical physics
         • I feel this is ad hoc and might need to be updated in the future.
         0. general texts
         1. mass-energy and heat
         1. gravity
         2. electromagnetism
         3. weak interaction
         4. strong interaction
   1. chemistry
      0. practical chemistry
      1. physical chemistry
      2. organic chemistry
      3. medical chemistry
         • Medical chemistry gets its own category because of the importance of synthesising important chemicals.
   2. astronomy
      • Astronomy goes before geoscience because astronomy is about general patterns in the universe; geoscience is an application of that to specific planets.
      0. methodology and history
      1. astrophysics
         • Stuff like planetary movement (“each planet is a sphere”) and galactic clouds (“each planet is a particle”).
      2. cosmology
         • Generalising astrophysics to the universe.
      1. planetary science
      2. star science
   3. geoscience
      • Most classifications put geography with history because of archaeology, but geography is a science in its own right. I also feel that palaeontology and archaeology are sciences because the focus is on recovering and analysing objects rather than extrapolating the meaning of them.
      0. geography
      1. meteorology
      2. climate science
      1. palaeontology
         • Palaeontology is the study of life; archaeology is the study of human history.
      2. archaeology
   4. biology
      • I put biology last because biology builds on geoscience. Taxonomy is complicated, so feel free to use your own system.
      0. origins of life
      1. evolution
      1. flora
      2. fauna
      3. human biology
         • Humans get their own section because that’s more convenient. I know this is kinda a messed-up way to organise things, but this feels more intuitive to me than just organising everything alphabetically.
         0. Holistic human biology
         1. Nervous system
            • For sources that deal primarily with the biological attributes of nerves rather than the psychological consequences.
         2. Structure
            1. Skeletal system
            2. Muscular system
            3. Integumentary system
               • Skin.
         3. Utility
            1. Circulatory system
            2. Digestive/excretory system
            3. Endocrine system
            4. Exocrine system
            5. Immune system
            6. Respiratory system
         4. Reproductive system
            • I JUST HAVE A THING FOR COCK OKAY
3. applied natural science (engineering)
   • This parallels the previous category.
   1. physical engineering
      1. mechanical engineering
         0. principles
         1. construction
         2. maintenance
            • Some people like to demarcate engineering from maintenance as “an engineer’s dream is a mechanic’s nightmare”, but the good engineer considers the long-term costs of their designs.
      2. electrical engineering
      3. nuclear engineering
   2. chemical engineering
   3. material and structural science
      • Astronomy and material science are both structural sciences; the universe is essentially a bunch of different materials once you start seeing planets and stars as particles.
      0. principles of structural science
      1. materials science
         • I’m still kind of unfamiliar with materials science so this is a very preliminary attempt at organisation.
         1. pure elements
         2. rocks
         3. metals
         4. organic matter
         5. artificial materials
         6. microstructures (e.g., textiles)
         7. macrostructures (e.g., galvanised square steel)
      2. design and architecture
         • This is a very unusual and potentially inconsistent placement, but I feel that functional art is about designing structures, from teacups to buildings, that are not only useful but beautiful. This deconstructionist definition is useful at least to me for creative reasons.
   4. civil engineering
      • I include construction here because it’s the practical consideration of civil engineering; a practical design can’t exist if it can’t be built. E.g., Trump’s wall would require heavy materials, which would require better roads to the border, which would add a literal billion dollars to the budget.
      0. principles of civil engineering
      1. construction
      2. maintenance
      3. city design
   5. applied biology
      1. human bioengineering
         • Defined as the approach of using tools to help humans, as opposed to human biology where one focuses on the body’s natural mechanisms (anatomy and physiology).
         1. medicine
         2. clothing and armour
         3. biotech
            • Either this category is going to massively increase with organ replacements, or I’ve been reading too much Warhammer 40K.
      2. agriculture
4. computer science
   • It gets its own section because computers are super cool and powerful. I use a wide definition of anything that processes, so Searle’s China brain (or, if you’re a zoomer, the human abacus from the 3 Body Problem Netflix show) is a computer. Also, I love my ’puter, all my friends are in my ’puter.
   0. computer science
   1. hardware
      • Electrical engineering is the general study of using electricity, for example to transfer energy or signals; hardware engineering is the implementation of architecture that does not necessarily use electricity.
   2. software
   3. internet
   4. security and cryptography
      • Cryptography is here instead of mathematics despite being applied probability because it’s almost always discussed in the context of computational machines.
   1. artificial intelligence
   2. user experience
      • Accessibility is included in here, because everybody has their own struggles even if they’re not legally disabled.

1. social science
   0. communication
      0. linguistics
         • Seven continents because language development is messy. This feels ad hoc and might need an update.
         1. African languages
         2. North American languages
         3. South American languages
         4. Antarctic languages
         5. Asian languages
         6. European languages
         7. Meganesian languages
         8. conlangs
      1. methods of communication
         • I choose to sort by approach rather than format because languages and standards of communication have changed massively over time.
         0. metadata such as dates and times
         1. documentation intended to remind
         2. documents intended for a specific person
         3. specialised documents intended for some interested readers, like reference works or educational materials
         4. documents intended for a wide variety of interested readers, like science populariser books
         5. general documents like newspapers
      2. archival
      3. education
   1. psychology
      • I include philosophy here because I feel modern sentiments consider philosophy a part of culture at this point, especially due to its reliance on introspection and empirical observation. I sort psychology into five major schools corresponding to the five stages of life (your genes evolve, you’re born, you start thinking, your parents raise you, and you enter society before dying), as that feels most intuitive to me when there’s no consensus. Psychiatry gets its own section because it’s that controversial.
      0. philosophy
         • This includes the history of science, because in olden days philosophy encompassed everything from science to politics, for example the (admittedly shaky) story of Pythagoras drowning Hippasus who revealed the heretical nature of the irrational.
         0. history
         1. metaphysics
      1. evolutionary psychology
         • Evolutionary psychology approaches changes between generations and species. I hence feel this also includes changing definitions in health.
      2. biological psychology
         • Biological psychology uses the lens of a single subject over its lifespan.
      3. cognitive psychology
      4. developmental (parental) psychology
      5. sociocultural psychology
      6. psychiatry
         • Anti-psychiatry is also included in this category.
   2. sociology
      0. demography
      1. sociocultural history
         • I think that there’s fundamentally no reason to separate ancient history from recorded history, as “recorded” history often has extremely sparse information.
      2. genealogy
         • I define genealogy as the study of families and family lineages. Inter-familial relationships should be filed under social classes.
      3. ethnicity
         • This is an incredibly vague and complicated term. I feel like the ethnicity approach blends together the below aspects into holistic concepts (e.g., “agnostic young Irish farmers” and “religious British old nobility”), hence the separate category from race, which refers purely to the physical characteristic.
      1. age
         • Age is quite an interesting construct. Possibly the most interesting example is Japan as they have a very traditional system where age is associated with experience and intellect, but also have the whole lolicon thing.
      2. sex and gender
         • I believe in postgenderism but include this category because it’s an extant social construct. Although sexuality is often defined in terms of gender, I feel we are slowly redefining sexuality as any aspect that induces sexual arousal (hence seemingly nonsensical terms like “sapiosexual”).
      3. race and location
         • Yes, the structure of age, gender, and race is a homage to the traditional Omegle ASL.
      4. religion
         • Giving religion its own major category unfairly elevates it relative to modern sentiments that religion is just a facet of culture, hence its placement under sociology. I also don’t differentiate “cults” because the definition of extremism feels like a no-true-scotsman when the official tracts are often a series of widely interpretable dictums.
         0. history
         1. monotheist religions
         2. pagan religions
         3. spirituality
      5. cuisine
         • Cuisine as defined by overall social trends and attitudes towards food; the art form focuses on taste instead.
   3. economics
      • There are many schools and theories of economics. Some economists heavily criticise others, while some maintain that all perspectives are valid in different contexts. Feel free to organise the micro and macro sections in whatever way makes sense to you. I might be more specific in a later update.
      0. accountancy
      1. microeconomics
         • An approach through the optimising (or, with recent theories, irrational) individual.
      2. macroeconomics
         • An approach through the other end of a system.
      3. socio-economic classes
         • My interpretation of social and occupational classes is that they tend to be used in an economic standpoint, hence the difference from ethnicity which focuses on the resulting experiences and act of aestheticising.
      1. management
         • including HR in here because that’s all part of internal management.
      2. public relations
      3. finance
         • kinda a catch-all for the practical perspective for economic actors, like stock investing
   4. politics
      0. law
         • Law gets its own section because it’s a mechanic of politics.
      1. international politics
      2. national politics
         • use the country code (ISO 3166).
   5. general primary documents
      • Optional, mainly for archivists and librarians who have comprehensive gigabytes of specific content like newspapers, legal transcripts, or games, and need a separate category for easy sorting. Organise at your discretion.
2. the arts
   0. history, movements, and art-specific archival
   1. desire
      • The philosophy of desire. Not the philosophical sense of defining us and the world around us, but the artistic sense of creating and yearning for something more. I include sexuality—sexual desire—in here even though it’s not considered an art form.
      0. nature of existence
      1. shape and structure
      2. movement and operation
      3. interaction and arrangement
      4. scale
   2. criticism
      • I lump all of art criticism together, including literary analysis, because they tend to use similar concepts like structure, tone, and comparison.
   1. literature
      • Art in the medium of language—anything that uses an established structure of symbols. Spoken-word literature like poetry, stand-up comedy, and political rap may alternatively be filed under music or drama depending on your interpretation.
      1. nonfiction
      2. fiction
         1. poetry
            • structured writing where the focus is on the words and their flow.
         2. prose
   2. sensory art
      • Art that communicates through the senses.
      1. visual art (sight)
         • I feel like the distinction between painting and drawing is meaningless given that they both involve putting pigment on paper relative to the light on the subject.
      2. music and ASMR (sound)
         • where the focus is on the texture and rhythm of the sound and language is merely a supplement.
      3. balance experiences
         • rollercoasters and various other passenger rides belong in this category.
      4. smell experiences
         • It’s fun to mock overpriced perfumes and essential oils, but at the end of the day we do like nice smells.
      5. food art (taste)
         • Taste is arguably just applied smell, but I feel the sensation of smelling a gas is different from having a liquid or solid inside your orifice.
      6. texture (touch)
         • I have a thing for looking through fleshlight catalogues.
   3. gaming
      • Art that involves strategic and aesthetic decision-making. It’s a rare opinion, but I think sport is entertainment and hence art; think of FIFA fans screaming out Pele’s name as he showed the “joga bonito”, or the crowd cheering madly when Daigo made the incredible comeback against Justin at the Evo 2004 Street Fighter competition. Note that this definition does not require physical exertion, which is endurance art and hence parasocial.
   4. drama
      • Art that involves real-life recreation of stories or form for escapism and fantasy. It and the previous are distinct: I consider martial arts kata, gymnastics, and freestyle canoe to fall into this category, because the goal is to approach a certain notion of perfection without any conflict with others’ decisions.
   5. parasocial art
      • Art that focuses on the parasocial relationship between the celebrity and the viewer. Includes both traditional celebrities like Kanye West (he made Graduation tho!1!) and content creators like VTubers. It doesn’t require a traditional suspension of disbelief because the person on the other end is genuinely emotional. Ceci est une pipe, to parody Magritte (badly).
   6. extreme content
      • Optional category for public collections that may need censorship.