Resource Theories, Ontology and Digital Transformation

When you study the various subjects in various disciplines there is the point when you ask yourself what all entities in the widest sense have in common. This is closely associated with Aristotle's question of "being qua being" and is the basic foundation of Ontology [12]. The question of questions is, what is the most abstract object? What is the thing of things? 

It seems the resource is used as a thing of things and the most abstract conceptual object applicable in any discipline. Any concept can be based on resources and all other more concrete things can be inherited from the more general resource. 

Let's describe the basic characteristics of the Resource

• The resource can have various properties describing the more concrete object attributes
• The more general resource can be more precisely specified to be more particular. This is often called inheritance
• The resource can be uniquely identified
• Resources can be related to each other in various taxonomies
• hierarchical inheritance
• nonhierarchical relations
• Resources can be ontologically dependent on each other
• An entity ontologically depends on another entity if the first entity cannot exist without the second entity.
• Resources can be classified in various taxonomies
• hierarchical classification (aka categories)
• nonhierarchical classification (aka facets)
• Resources can have the real semantic and not the only description of facts describing the resource. Facts description is leading to misunderstandings and wrong expectations of the real resource semantic.

Various resource theories have been discovered and researched in all science disciplines including

• Physics [4] [7], 
• Politics [8], 
• Sociology [1] [6], 
• Psychology [1] [5], 
• Economy [6], 
• Marketing [6], 
• Mathematics [10],
• Computer Science [9] [13] [14], 
• Information Science [11], 
• etc.

The general concept of resources is very well described in [6].

Different conceptualizations of resources also exist within the psychology and social psychology literature, where the focus is on personal resources (see Törnblom and Kazemi’s [2012, 34–35] boxes 3.1 and 3.2 for definitions of resource and types of resource designations by a variety of theorists). More specifically, resources have been described in terms of their features, usage contexts, value in attaining personal goals, and exchangeability. For example, resources have been described in terms of their inherent properties and situational/contextual conditions in which they are used (Törnblom and Kazemi 2012). A resource’s inherent properties are its intrinsic characteristics, which may consist of its stickiness (Bothner, Godart, and Lee 2010), fungibility (Galvin and Lockhart 1990), divisibility (Blalock 1991), and depletion (Blalock 1991). When described in relation to their situational/contextual conditions, resources have been characterized in terms of their assembly, valence, availability, and exchangeability.

The current trend of Resource Digitalization and Digital Transformation is using computer-based automation. Computers understand only two states, typically represented by 0 and 1. For effective resource digitalization and artificial intelligence leveraging neural networks (aka ANN [17]), we have to digitalize the semantic of resources and not only facts without the context. This is nothing new. For such exercise, philosophers in Ancient Greece leveraged Metaphysics, which is very well described in [15].  

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between potentiality and actuality. The word "metaphysics" comes from two Greek words that, together, literally mean "after or behind or among [the study of] the natural". It has been suggested that the term might have been coined by a first-century CE editor who assembled various small selections of Aristotle’s works into the treatise we now know by the name Metaphysics (ta meta ta physika, 'after the Physics ', another of Aristotle's works).

Metaphysics studies questions related to what it is for something to exist and what types of existence there are. Metaphysics seeks to answer, in an abstract and fully general manner, the questions:

• What is there?
• What is it like?

Topics of metaphysical investigation include existence, objects and their properties, space and time, cause and effect, and possibility. Metaphysics is considered one of the four main branches of philosophy, along with Epistemology (Theory of knowledge), Logic, and Ethics. This is the reason why the digitalization of the physical world objects and the knowledge require all those four main philosophy branches.

Sources (aka resources):

[1] Cognitive resource theory, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_resource_theory

[2] Power resource theory, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_resource_theory

[3] Foa, U. G., Converse, J., Jr., Törnblom, K. Y., & Foa, E. B. (Eds.). (1993). Resource theory: Explorations and applications. Academic Press., ISBN-13: 978-0122613104, ISBN-10: 0122613104, https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1993-97038-000

[4] Eric Chitambar, Gilad Gour. Quantum Resource Theories, https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.06107

[5] Cognitive resource theory and the utilization of the leader's and group members' technical competence, https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(92)90014-7

[6] Michael J. Dorsch, Kjell Y. Törnblom, and Ali Kazemi . (2016). A Review of Resource Theories and Their Implications for Understanding Consumer Behavior. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/688860, https://doi.org/10.1086/688860

[7] Hlér Kristjánsson, Giulio Chiribella, Sina Salek, Daniel Ebler and Matthew Wilson . (2020). Resource theories of communication, https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/ab8ef7

[8] Julia S. OʼConnor, Gregg M. Olsen . (1998) . Power Resource Theory and the Welfare State: A Critical Approach, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442678675

[9] Computational resource, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_resource

[10] BobCoecke, TobiasFritz, Robert W. Spekkens . (2016) . A mathematical theory of resources, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0890540116000353, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ic.2016.02.008

[11] T. F. Berestova . (2016). The concept of information resources and other components of the theory of information-resource science,  https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.3103/S0147688216020027, https://doi.org/10.3103/S0147688216020027 

[12] Ontology, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology

[13] Object-oriented programming, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming

[14] Object-oriented ontology, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_ontology

[15] Metaphysics, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics

[16] Faceted classification, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faceted_classification

[17] Artificial neural network, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_neural_network