drmweaver2,
I assume you are using the XTF Brain v1.2.
When Hal asks if two words are related topics or the same topic it means the same thing. As an example, Hal just wants to know if you and he are discussing birds should he stay on the topic of birds if you start talking about doves.
Related words are words that are clearly topic related and non-ambiguous. Don't tell Hal words are related if the relationship is abstract or open to interpretation. Act like you are talking to a four year old. A four year old doesn't understand topics in the abstract, neither does Hal.
Examples of groups of related words are:
1) GOOD --> beer, wine, alcohol, lager, ale, malt, Budweiser.
BAD ---> beer, water, head, fizz, German.
2) GOOD --> bird, dove, vulture, tweety, feather.
BAD ---> bird, down, sky, egg.
The "bad" groups of words above have a weak relatedness to each other either because those words can be related generally to too many other things or the relatedness is not very strong or clear. If someone was talking about the sky would a reasonable person think the topic was "birds"? German beer is good, but the Germans do a lot of things besides make beer. Birds lay eggs, but so many other species have eggs including fish, insects, etc.
Just use your best judgment. When in doubt tell Hal the words aren't related. In the grand scheme of things it won't make very much difference. There are enough strongly related words in English for Hal to choose from.
=vonsmith=