An alarm is a human-made signaling artifact that interrupts normal operation to draw attention to a specific condition — danger, anomaly, or required action — through one or more sensory channels (auditory, visual, tactile, or textual). Its parameters are: (1) a trigger condition that activates it, (2) a sensory modality or combination thereof, and (3) a designated meaning shared between the designer and the recipient. The alarm persists through its engineered design: a physical device or software routine built to operate repeatedly upon trigger events, and its concept persists through safety standards and operational protocols that codify when and how alarms deploy. [form: alarmo | substrate: mind | horizon: a moment | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
alarm
An alarm is a human-made signaling artifact that interrupts normal operation to draw attention to a specific condition — danger, anomaly, or required action — through one or more sensory channels (auditory, visual, tactile, or textual). It…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A human-made signaling device or mechanism designed to draw attention to a specific condition — danger, status change, or required action — through sensory cues such as sound, light, vibration, or text. Built to persist as a purposeful artifact that interrupts normal operation to signal urgency.
Names and aliases
- alarmen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrsb393a00miollhxpcc7bkzINSTANCE_OF →
alarm is a specific kind of signal — a signal purpose-built to attract attention. Per Law 9: a competent speaker would call an alarm 'a signal', specifically an urgent one. Sense: signal as any artifact that conveys information through a perceptible medium.
- cmrgrc7ac0027yvn1hxa549vhSERVES →
Law 8d: an alarm is built specifically for the sake of drawing attention. Its designed purpose is to capture attention — that is its function. servant (alarm) → master (attention).
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Aug 7, 2026, 2:41 PM UTC
- Content hash
- 340516ad8d2bf5640c44364c4b32c1c6b371ae399abab39ba351b35d8eefed23