Please be aware that I don't speak in any way for NASA, JPL or the
California Institute of Technology. (01)
The formal ontology approach is very appealing to me for several reasons. (02)
1) it is a "relative" formalization of 'context', 'description', .... (03)
Duane raised questions about what variables and other considerations are
part of 'context'.
This is important because we also need to reason about what is
explicitly known to
be irrelevant as much as reason about what is explicitly known to be
relevant.
When it's grey, then we're subject to discrepencies of interepretation
(you mean X & I mean Y)
because some aspects of the context are subjectively defined. (04)
2) there is already a lot of solid work that has been done to
"formalize" these notions (05)
- DOLCE is one example. (06)
- NIST's Process Specification Language is another example, albeit more
limited in scope (07)
- There's another "Bob Smith" ;-) who has a lot of interesting things
to say on the matter as well: http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/ (08)
- There are some commercial efforts as well
(e.g., TopQuadrant's "representational shift" approach) (09)
3) At the end of the day, what matters is to have an explicit definition
of what "context" is
that is independently verifiable by a third-party. To verify context
claims, we need a simple
way to reach an agreement on the semantic meaning of a context
definition. This is sometimes
more difficult to achieve with commercial systems that might rely on
proprietary systems &
whose semantics might change. Commercial enterprises have a role to play
but I don't believe
we have yet established a synergetic symbiosis of academic research,
open-source practices
critical for standarization / reference implementations and proprietary
systems that add
a non-functional value-added to the whole picture (if there's functional
distortion, then
we're back to square one w.r..t. having to validate proprietary systems
or having our
IP locked in a proprietary tool) (010)
4) Although formal ontology offers the intellectual "high-road" approach
to 'context' , 'situation', 'process', etc...
there is, in practice, a significant gap between how much of this can
actually be achieved with the current
state of the affairs w.r.t. tools, standards, validation suites, etc..
We don't even "apply" the notions of
context, description, etc... to talk about our own semantic web
technology, processes, etc... (011)
-- Nicolas. (012)
Bob Smith wrote: (013)
>And a good trick is being able to formulate questions that raise "even
>better" questions that expose more context for those acting on "answers"...
>;-}
>
>B
>
>C. West Churchman's Inquiring Systems, and Mason-Mitroff's popularization of
>this technique was fun for a while.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Duane Nickull
>Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 10:06 AM
>To: [ontolog-forum]
>Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Re: Unambiguous context information
>
>I only have questions - not answers ;-)
>
>This is an interesting topic. My observation has been that most humans
>are deceived by their own perception of reality. I heard a noise,
>therefore there was a noise. I live in a temporally-sequentially
>perceived three dimensional state therefore everyone else perceived
>things the same way.
>
>I am extremely interested in Nicolas's views on this since NASA
>obviously has to acknowledge the fact that there are other models for
>existence.
>
>D
>
>Bob Smith wrote:
>
>
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>If you allow me to add a pragmatic question....about your point of truth
>>tables:
>>
>>You said:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>>>There are a number of contextual variables that seem to have the ability
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>to contort truth tables.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>>>Terrestrial proximity (how close is the thing to a terrestrial body)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>Temporal Temperature Existential State (example: solid, gaseous, liquid)
>>Granularity of perception precision (to a human in an airplane, the lines
>>
>>
>in
>
>
>>the desserts are pictures, to an ant climbing them, they are simply mounds
>>of dirt) Number of planes of perception (3d, 4d, *) Energy (humans perceive
>>such a small band of the overall spectrum. even something like magnetic
>>energy can twist apparent "truths")
>>
>>========================================
>>So when decision makers have decision tables and truth tables and some
>>Robert's Rules of Order for debate on consequences, how might resource
>>policy be developed?
>>
>>My context is the effort of RAND in the early 1970's to model Presidential
>>warfare decision making contexts (Graham T. Allison, Essence of Decision,
>>Little Brown, 1971; and subsequent context models including Rational,
>>Political, Bureaucratic, and "chaos theory".)
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>>Bob
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Duane Nickull
>>Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 9:29 AM
>>To: [ontolog-forum]
>>Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Re: Unambiguous context information
>>
>>Nicholas:
>>
>>Many thanks for taking the time to parse my initial thoughts. The paper
>>only touches the surface of where this thinking may go. I will read the
>>Dolce next to understand more. Here are some additional thoughts to
>>
>>
>ponder:
>
>
>>Where does one draw the line between something being a universal truth
>>and a perception/assertion? If I smash two rocks together, it makes a
>>sound. Sure - on earth if there is a gaseous environment to transmit
>>the shock waves. What if it happens very slowly by two rocks being
>>forced together as part of continental shift? It still makes a sound,
>>yet it would likely be imperceivable to humans due to the long distance
>>between frequency peaks.
>>
>>A rock is matter. In the context of human perception, it appears solid,
>>yet it is not. If we examined it under close enough scrutiny, it is a
>>matrix of related bits of energy.
>>
>><quote who="me">
>>Are humans' axioms of 'universal truths' tainted by our own arrogance in
>>assuming our perceptions are ubiquitous?
>></quote>
>>
>>A rock has mass. How can you measure the mass. In the context of
>>static terrestrial existence, it is easy to assign a value based on
>>relating the gravitational pull to some scale. In space, the measure of
>>mass is completely relative to the velocity contrast to the perceiver.
>>
>>There are a number of contextual variables that seem to have the ability
>>to contort truth tables.
>>
>>Terrestrial proximity (how close is the thing to a terrestrial body)
>>Temporal
>>Temperature
>>Existential State (example: solid, gaseous, liquid)
>>Granularity of perception precision (to a human in an airplane, the
>>lines in the desserts are pictures, to an ant climbing them, they are
>>simply mounds of dirt)
>>Number of planes of perception (3d, 4d, *)
>>Energy (humans perceive such a small band of the overall spectrum. even
>>something like magnetic energy can twist apparent "truths")
>>
>>There are probably many more human being related contexts too.
>>
>>I am definitely going to read the Dolce work you referenced. Sounds very
>>interesting.
>>
>>Duane
>>
>>Internet Business Logic wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>Nicholas --
>>>
>>>You wrote:
>>>
>>>/If you really want unambiguous context information, it ought be
>>>spelled out in a way that is sufficiently formal and sound to make
>>>reasoning valuable and useful. /
>>>
>>>I'd suggest that a _representation shift_ can help with this.
>>>
>>>As you may know, we have been suggesting that reasoning directly with
>>>open vocabulary English can help to solve these kinds of problems.
>>>Why describe the problem and its solution in English, then try to
>>>solve it in a non-English notation? That's the source of most of the
>>>problems.
>>>
>>>Although reasoning directly with open vocabulary English may sound
>>>like blue sky, there is a system that does this, albeit with a subtle
>>>trade off to avoid dictionary construction yet get precise English
>>>semantics. (The underlying logical semantics is model-theoretic.)
>>>
>>>The system is live, online, with a number of Ontology and other
>>>examples, at the site below. The author- and user interface is simply
>>>a browser. The approach is described in the e-Government
>>>presentation. There's also a recent paper at
>>>http://www.w3.org/2004/12/rules-ws/paper/19 .
>>>
>>>Thanks in advance for comments.
>>>
>>> -- Adrian
>>>
>>>--
>>>
>>>Internet Business Logic -- online at www.reengineeringllc.com
>>>
>>>Reengineering LLC, PO Box 1412, Bristol, CT 06011-1412, USA
>>>
>>>Phone 860 583 9677 Mobile 860 830 2085 Fax 860 314 1029
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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