Beyond frames: A formal human-compatible representation of ideas in design using non-genetic ad-hoc and volatile class memberships and corresponding architecture for idea operators

This paper proposes a formal human-compatible representation of ideas in design using ad-hoc and volatile class memberships and corresponding architecture for idea operators. The proposed theory departs from genetically inspired object-oriented concepts used in state-of-the-art implementations of Frames, Semantic Networks and the Semantic Web, and Description Logics, which are limited by the endemic complexity of (multiple) inheritance, and whereby reinventing/ reorganising ideas, as is a staple of creativity, is tedious and error prone. Instead, the paper proposes that ideas do not get 'born' out of 'parents'; rather, they exist as either present or not (yet) to consciousness. Thus ideas can be considered as either eternal, or more practically, self-emergent. This is an obvious yet radical and highly promising shift in paradigm, allowing ad-hoc classes, volatile classes, and an unlimited capacity to reinvent/ reorganise classes. Limitations of tree structures and forced directionality present in the genetically-inspired state-of-the-art vanish altogether.