aware of not knowing

• CURIE: gmeow:awareOfNotKnowing
• IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/awareOfNotKnowing
• Category: property
• Defined by: gmeow:slices/metacognition
• Box roles: RBox role (What is this?)

A known-unknown: an agent is aware that it does NOT know a subject — the second-order recognition of a gap in its own knowledge, the explicit boundary of what it knows. The reflexive complement of the cognition knowledge spectrum (gmeow:isAwareOf … gmeow:hasMastered): where those record what an agent knows, this records a recognised edge of that knowledge. The RANGE is left intentionally open — the not-known may be a gmeow:Entity or a gmeow:Proposition — and is documented in prose. NOT functional: an agent recognises many gaps at once.

Structure

Property shape: object property; gmeow:Agent -> ?

Practical Pattern

Use gmeow:awareOfNotKnowing from gmeow:Agent to ? when the relationship itself belongs in the native GMEOW graph.

Example Snippets

These snippets are generated from canonical slice examples and trimmed to the Turtle blocks where this term appears.

Known Unknown

• Source: slices/core/metacognition/examples/known-unknown.ttl
• Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-core-metacognition-examples-known-unknown

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example — a KNOWN-UNKNOWN that mints an inquiry, with NO new bridge term.
# Lillith recognises the boundary of her own knowledge (gmeow:awareOfNotKnowing),
# the second-order complement of the cognition knowledge spectrum. The recognised
# gap motivates a question by REUSING inquiry's open-domain gmeow:evokes (the
# not-known subject evokes the question) and the inquiry spine (gmeow:seeksToKnow)
# — there is no gmeow:motivates term (Principle 6), and the bridge to the inquiry
# slice is documented routing, not an entailment. This is the trustworthy-agent
# move: surfacing what it does not know as an open inquiry rather than confabulating.
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/metacognition/> .
@prefix rdfs:  <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .

# --- Known-unknown: Lillith is aware that she does NOT know protocol X — a
#     recognised gap (second-order), not the open-world silence of an unasserted
#     triple. The boundary of her knowledge, recorded for a trustworthy memory.
ex:lillith gmeow:awareOfNotKnowing ex:protocolX .

Common Companion Terms

gmeow:Agent

Usage Advice

Use when

• Use to record the boundary of an agent's knowledge — a known-unknown the agent explicitly recognises — so a trustworthy memory can surface what it does not know and turn the gap into an inquiry.

Avoid when

• Avoid using it for mere absence of a fact (a known-unknown is a RECOGNISED gap, second-order, not the open-world silence of an unasserted triple), avoid asserting an rdfs:range (the not-known surface stays open), and avoid minting a gmeow:motivates partner; reuse gmeow:evokes to raise the question.

How to use

• Assert gmeow:awareOfNotKnowing from the agent to the not-known subject; to raise the inquiry, point gmeow:evokes from that subject at a gmeow:Question and hold it open with gmeow:seeksToKnow — reusing the inquiry slice rather than minting new terms.

Scope notes

• Known-unknowns motivate inquiry by reference (documentation only — no new axiom): a recognised gap typically mints a gmeow:Question, modelled by REUSING inquiry's open-domain gmeow:evokes (the not-known subject evokes the question) and the inquiry spine (gmeow:seeksToKnow), never by a new gmeow:motivates property (Principle 6). The bridge to the inquiry slice is documented routing, not an entailment.

Examples

• ex:lillith gmeow:awareOfNotKnowing ex:protocolX.