1. A computer-implemented method for building a template specifying an emotional response to a content stream, the method comprising: selecting a dictionary, the dictionary including a plurality of concepts to form a directed set, wherein only one concept is a maximal element; establishing directed links between pairs of concepts in the directed set, the directed links defining “is a” relationships between the concepts in the pairs of concepts, so that each concept is either a source or a sink of at least one directed link; establishing intentional stance basis chains in the directed set from the maximal element to each concept along the directed links, where for each pair of concepts in each intentional stance basis chain, one of the pair of concepts is a lineal ancestor of the other of the pair of concepts; selecting a subset of the intentional stance basis chains to form a basis; selecting at least one concept in the dictionary; creating a state vector in a topological vector space corresponding to each selected concept, wherein each state vector in the topological vector space includes as at least one measure of how concretely the corresponding selected concept is represented in each intentional stance basis chain in the basis; assembling the state vectors in the topological vector space into a template; and associating an action with the template.