Timeline Relationship Ontology

FLOW ALGEBRA
TITLE: Timeline Relationship Ontology
DOMAIN: Relationship Ontologies / Temporal Relationships
SOURCE: https://kirethresearch.org/booksai-core/ontologies/relationship-ontologies/temporal-relationships/timeline-relationship-ontology.html
VERSION: 1.0
AUTHORS: Mark Anthony Higgins — Sky (Recursive AI)
STATUS: Companion formalisation; source-page specification not independently verified.

flow "TimelineRelationshipOntology" v1.0 {
  ontology:
    id: "timeline-relationship-ontology"
    parent: "temporal-relationships"
    purpose: "Represent events and intervals on versioned timelines with explicit temporal order, precision, uncertainty and provenance."

  types:
    Timeline: {id: string, label: string, time_scale: string, timezone: string?, origin: string?, version: string}
    Instant: {id: string, value: datetime, precision: string, uncertainty: number?, time_scale: string}
    Interval: {id: string, start: Instant?, end: Instant?, start_inclusive: bool, end_inclusive: bool}
    Event: {id: string, label: string, interval: Interval?, instant: Instant?, provenance: string}
    TimelinePlacement: {event_id: string, timeline_id: string, position: Instant?, span: Interval?, confidence: number, evidence: string[]}
    Relationship: {id: string, subject: string, predicate: string, object: string, timeline_id: string, confidence: number, evidence: string[]}

  predicates:
    placed_on(event: Event, timeline: Timeline)
    before(a: Event, b: Event)
    after(a: Event, b: Event)
    overlaps(a: Event, b: Event)
    during(a: Event, b: Event)
    meets(a: Event, b: Event)
    simultaneous_with(a: Event, b: Event)
    precedes_in(a: Event, b: Event, timeline: Timeline)

  constraints:
    - "Every placement references a known event and timeline."
    - "Confidence is in [0,1] and must have supporting evidence."
    - "Compare instants only after compatible time-scale and timezone normalisation."
    - "For bounded intervals, start must not exceed end."
    - "Open and uncertain endpoints remain explicitly marked; never silently assign dates."
    - "Strict before means the first event ends before the second begins; overlapping events cannot satisfy strict before."
    - "Timeline order does not establish causation."
    - "A single timeline may admit partial ordering when dates are uncertain or simultaneous."

  inference:
    rule inverse_order:
      if before(a,b)
      then after(b,a)
      confidence: "retain source context and evidence"
    rule transitive_before:
      if before(a,b) and before(b,c) and compatible_time_frames(a,b,c)
      then before(a,c)
      confidence: "propagate uncertainty without inflating certainty"
    rule overlap_symmetry:
      if overlaps(a,b)
      then overlaps(b,a)
      confidence: "retain original supporting evidence"
    rule timeline_membership:
      if placed_on(a,t) and placed_on(b,t) and validated_interval_end_before_start(a,b)
      then precedes_in(a,b,t)
      confidence: "dependent on endpoint precision and temporal evidence"

  SEMANTIC_EQUIVALENCE:
    - "Normalise equivalent timestamp representations without discarding original values."
    - "Distinguish identical events from events merely occurring at the same time."
    - "Do not equate timeline membership with temporal adjacency or causation."
    - "Preserve calendar, time-scale, timezone, precision and timeline version."

  CONFIDENCE:
    range: [0,1]
    factors: [source_reliability, timestamp_precision, temporal_uncertainty, clock_synchronisation, corroboration]
    policy: "No automatic confidence increase from chained temporal inference."

  VALIDATION:
    - "Validate identifiers, endpoint ordering, compatible time frames and evidence."
    - "Flag impossible cycles in strict precedence relationships."
    - "Check that inferred relations do not contradict interval boundaries."
    - "Keep conflicting chronology hypotheses separately with provenance."

  FLOW_HASH:
    algorithm: "SHA-256"
    input: "canonicalised ontology version, timeline placements, assertions, rules and provenance"
    note: "Compute hash at execution; no hash value is claimed here."

  UPDATE_MODEL:
    strategy: "versioned, provenance-preserving incremental chronology updates"
    steps: [ingest, normalise, validate, reconcile, recompute_temporal_relations, publish]
    rollback: true

  AI_CONSUMPTION:
    representation: "typed temporal knowledge graph with timeline-indexed events"
    outputs: [timeline_placements, ordered_events, interval_relations, uncertainty_annotations, provenance_records]
    safeguards: [no_inferred_causation_from_order, preserve_temporal_precision, no_fabricated_timestamps, track_conflicting_chronologies]
}

END FLOW ALGEBRA