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Re: [ontolog-forum] Visual Complexity

To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: andersen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2007 15:48:22 -0500 (EST)
Message-id: <58094.63.239.69.1.1170881302.squirrel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Chuck,    (01)

I think you're missing the point.  Pat's (and I'm certain Chris') point is
that the term "model" used in the way they were discussing, is a
mathematical object that may be built up over things in the real world,
for example, such a model could contain a set containing you and I.  So,
standardly, you assign to terms in your language interpretations that are
picked from parts of that mathematical object.  Say the term 'funny' is
assigned the interpretation that is the set of you and I.  Now, all things
being equal, in FOL if we apply the term 'funny' to John Sowa (the real
John Sowa, not an abstraction of any kind) we get a big fat FALSE.  As
Chris and Pat have pointed out far better than I could hope to, there just
is no abstraction going on here of any kind.  If you're thinking that the
"model" is about 'funny' and not about sets containing you, I, or John
Sowa, then I could see how you might make that mistake -- things like
'funny' are the kinds of things that make their way into data models and
ontologies.  But that is not what Chris and Pat were talking about.    (02)

  .bill    (03)

> Chris,
>
>  I beg to differ with you on the point you are making to John.  A model
> (any model) is necessarily some sort of abstraction of the thing
> (referent?
> real world? imagined ideal?) that it is representing.  In this way, it is
> an "approximation" of the thing that it is modeling.  If this were not so,
> then the model would be equal to the original, which is not the intent of
> modeling.
>
> Chuck
>
>
> Charles Turnitsa
> Project Scientist
> Virginia Modeling, Analysis & Simulation Center
> Old Dominion University Research Foundation
> (757) 638-6315 (voice)
> cturnits@xxxxxxx
>
>
>
>
>              Christopher
>              Menzel
>              <cmenzel@xxxxxxxx                                          To
>              >                         "[ontolog-forum] "
>              Sent by:                  <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>              ontolog-forum-bou                                          cc
>              nces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>              .net                                                  Subject
>                                        Re: [ontolog-forum] Visual
>                                        Complexity
>              02/07/07 01:58 PM
>
>
>              Please respond to
>              "[ontolog-forum]
>                      "
>              <ontolog-forum@on
>               tolog.cim3.net>
>
>
>
>
>
> (Embedded image moved to file: pic07058.gif)
>
>
> John, it is your use of "approximation" to characterize ALL models
> without exception here that I object to.  Of course, depending on
> what it in the world one is trying to represent, a model *might*
> necessarily be an approximation, especially if one is modeling
> physical phenomena that are inherently vague or (in effect)
> infinitely complex and hence which simply cannot be represented with
> 100% accuracy.  Consider, e.g., modeling a stochastic process or
> fluid flow by means of probability theory or differential equations.
> However, many physical situations involve, *at a desired level of
> granularity*, NO vagueness and NO intractable complexity at all, as
> in my previous example involving faculty and administrators at Texas
> A&M.  Many ontologies involve this kind of sharply delineated,
> unambiguously representable information.  Your diagram above belies
> this fact and suggests that models are always in some way false or
> inaccurate.  It just ain't so.
>
> Chris Menzel
>
>
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>    (04)



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