 upper level ontology about
     as good as Cyc or somewhat better would not be
     worth the scale of investment that I think will be required.

The approach that I believe will produce a satisfactory result is along
the lines of Nicola's suggestion that a small group of highly competent
people meet to hammer out a basic philosophical / logical approach as a
foundation for a computational artifact (an upper level ontology)  that
will be broadly useful and widely accepted.  After (and only after) such
an a