An overview of databanking

Abstract

Databanking is about mapping real-world activities into the computer. The Nuclear Industry started doing this in the mid-1960s. The author was drawn into the field at this time and originated COSMOS (2) which established firm theoretical foundations. These stemmed from the recognition that there is an intermediate stage, consisting of an English language description of the activities, and that it is really this that is mapped into the computer. A simple idea, which was noted in the mid-19th century by the American Poet-Novelist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote, ‘words are also actions and actions are a kind of words’ ( The Poet, Chapter xiii). Databanking theory then, can be based on a detailed analysis of descriptive English prose and it turns out that this in turn can be discussed in terms of the seven degrees of freedom of a natural descriptive language.