🧠 Scientific Definition of a "Question" to a Computer (Independent of Keyboard Input)

Definition:
A question, in computational terms, is a structured informational request that initiates a computational process intended to reduce uncertainty in a defined knowledge domain.

⚙️ Abstract Description

In the context of computer science and information theory, a question can be formalized as a function or query:

Q:S→AQ: S rightarrow A

Where:

• SS is the state space or knowledge base of the system.

• AA is the answer space or possible set of responses.

• -O-1/2Q-1/3Q

• QQ is the query function or transformation, mapping knowledge to selected outputs.

💡 Key Properties

1. Non-Linguistic Origin Possible:
   A "question" may be initiated by:

   • A hardware signal (e.g. a sensor threshold breach),

   • A software interrupt,

   • A network message,

   • A silent trigger in a machine learning model.
     It does not require human input via keyboard.

2. Entropy Reduction:
   A question reduces the entropy (uncertainty) of a system. This follows Shannon's Information Theory:

   Hbefore>HafterH_{text{before}} > H_{text{after}}

3. Modal Form (in AI):
   In Artificial Intelligence and logic programming (e.g., Prolog), a question may be represented as:

   ?-goal?text{-goal}

   which triggers inference over a knowledge base.

4. Semantic Layer:
   On the semantic level, a question is a selector function that partitions a data space into relevant and irrelevant regions for the given objective.

🧬 Example (Non-Keyed Input)

• Sensor Reading:
  A change in a temperature sensor crossing a threshold could implicitly pose the question:

  "Is the system overheating?"

  Internally, the system evaluates:

  IF T>Tmax⇒Trigger Cooling Protocoltext{IF } T > T_{max} Rightarrow text{Trigger Cooling Protocol}

  This is a conditional query, despite no linguistic input.

🧭 Generalization

In essence, a question to a computer is any computational stimulus or information gap indicator that prompts the system to search, compute, reason, infer, or retrieve a value from its internal structures or external interfaces.

Would you like a version that integrates quantum or symbolic computing interpretations too?