Understanding

Full Title or Meme

When an Entity can "stand among" other entities so that they all comprehend something in the same way.

Context

Context is all important in Understanding. Consider the following use cases:

1. A simple thermostat has Understanding of a temperature being in the specified range, it agrees with all similar thermostats.
2. A computer based thermostat has Understanding of a temperature being in the range desired by the time of day as presence (or absence) of humans in the environment.
3. A building based environmental control system has Understanding of temperature, humidity and lighting throughout a building based on current usage and weather patterns.
4. A weather prediction computer has Understanding of the current climatic conditions and can project them into the near future.
5. A climate prediction computer has Understanding of the current climatic conditions as well as concentration of various chemicals in the atmosphere and can project them into the distant future.
6. For today, only a human has Understanding of the impact of any of this on human life in the future, but that is only in agreement with a sub-set of the population.

It is short-sighted to limit Understanding to humans as several philosophers have done as shown on the page on Knowledge.