[Data-modeling] Multiple Fictional Universes

[Jeff Prucher]

I agree that fictional universes are great candidates for bases, and bases
will hopefully make it easier to add universe-specific properties. I think
that there is value in having the fictional universe type as well, though,
since you can use it to programmatically determine what topics relate to
what universe, without prior knowledge of that universe. If we relied solely
on bases for fictional universes, this wouldn't be possible because there is
no way to assert in a way that's queryable that a base corresponds to a
fictional universe -- you have to know what base maps to what universe.

Jeff



> -----Original Message-----
> From: data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com 
> [mailto:data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com] On Behalf Of Warren Harris
> Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 6:07 PM
> To: Freebase data modeling mailing list
> Subject: Re: [Data-modeling] Multiple Fictional Universes
> 
> This might be somewhat "off base," but it seems like there's 
> some overlap between the concepts of fictional universes and 
> bases. Both represent a context for facts. In a universe, a 
> familiar character may have a different set of facts 
> associated with them (e.g. as a fictional character, George 
> Washington might be 12 ft tall). In a base, we create a 
> subset of types from the commons, and add co-types to extend 
> them with base-specific properties.
> 
> These 2 concepts seem very similar. Although we don't 
> currently define fictional universes as overlays on 
> real-world topics (instead they reference them), we could. 
> This might make fictional universes easier to define (just 
> start with the real world and change it, e.g. the fictional 
> LA of Bladerunner could be an overlay on the real LA topic
> -- part of the Bladerunner fictional universe base).
> 
> So it might be interesting if all fictional universes were 
> "head starts" at bases (actually were bases put out there to 
> invite people to expand on them). It might also be 
> interesting if bases could be defined hierarchically -- the 
> direction you're going here, but with Parent Base and 
> Sub-Bases (e.g. the SNL base might be a sub-base of a larger 
> Comedy TV base).
> 
> I know we're just getting bases off the ground, but I thought 
> this overlap was worth pointing out,
> 
> Warren
> 
> 
> On Oct 30, 2008, at 4:04 PM, Jeff Prucher wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com
> >> [mailto:data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com] On Behalf Of Tadhg 
> >> O'Higgins
> >> Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 12:39 PM
> >> To: Freebase data modeling mailing list
> >> Subject: [Data-modeling] Multiple Fictional Universes
> >>
> >> How should we treat fictional universes within other fictional 
> >> universes? Or "alternate universes" within, e.g., the Star Trek 
> >> universe?
> >>
> >> My initial thought is to have "Parent Universe" and "Sub-universes"
> >> properties, but I'm not sure they cover all the cases. In 
> addition, 
> >> we might run into the problem of having to use the Star 
> Trek universe 
> >> as a hold-all, containing both the "main"
> >> Star Trek universe (which most people will want to see data about 
> >> when they arrive at the page) and also the minor alternate 
> universes 
> >> (e.g. from
> >> <http://www.freebase.com/view/guid/9202a8c04000641f80000000002
> >> 1eea5>) as separate topics connected as sub-universes.
> >>
> >> Any thoughts on how these relationships should be handled?
> >
> > This is a really good question. All the alternate universes that 
> > appear in the Star Trek series are part of the same setting 
> (which we 
> > also call a universe). So in a sense, the literary 
> construct that we 
> > call the "Star Trek universe" is separate from the primary 
> universe in 
> > which the stories take place, which exists on par with the Mirror 
> > Universe and whatever other alternate universes show up in the 
> > franchise. So parent and sub- universes would work pretty well, I 
> > think. The trick would be to label or describe the parent 
> multiverse 
> > (which contains the Mirror Universe and the universe in which the 
> > series are primarily set) from the primary universe it contains, so 
> > that people can link to the topics reasonably consistently.
> >
> > Jeff
> >
> >> Tadhg
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