John:
That posting from me was intentionally light-hearted: my point, spelled out, is: (01)
So-called human "common sense" is a very subjective term, I'll admit. But it is
usually able to disambiguate many things that computers are incapable of. If I
point in the sky at night and say, "there's the moon" only a computer (or
someone working too hard on W3C ideas about identifiers and addressing and not
getting out enough) is going to reply: "that's wrong, it's your finger" - the
context and "common sense" is enough to understand what I'm doing (pointing,
rather than just raising my finger to look at it), and what I'm saying. (02)
To use the above example further and distinguish between the subjective opinion
and an objective statement, the only objective statement, irrespective of other
contextual information, is:
'Peter is pointing at the sky and stating "There's the moon"'.
If you and/or other people look in the sky from the same vantage point and
confirm by your own observation what I'm stating, does it make the statement
"There's the moon" an objective statement or not? The point is surely that how,
or whether, you answer that question, you will always need a context. And
context is notoriously difficult (some would say impossible) for formal logic
and machine processing to encapsulate and process. (03)
*******
I think you take the light-hearted (but nonetheless pertinent) point that I
make too far in extending it to the generally relatively poor level of social
and political education in the USA, where indeed Fox seems to be considered by
many as a "news" service. I think the examples that have been debated on the
list are on the other end of the spectrum with regard to complexity of the
statements concerned. (04)
Enjoy your Sunday and keep away from Fox TV ;-) (05)
Regards, (06)
Peter (07)
-----Original Message-----
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John F. Sowa
Sent: 29 April 2007 17:14
To: [ontolog-forum]
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] {Disarmed} Re: OWL and lack of identifiers (08)
Peter, (09)
Actually, that is not true: (010)
> I think most mortals using common sense would have no
> difficulty in making the distinction between an opinion
> and a statement of fact. (011)
In the US, there is a TV network called Fox, which is owned
by the same person who bought a formerly respectable newspaper
called The London Times. There was a recent survey of people
who watched news programs from any of the four US commercial
networks -- ABC, CBS, NBC, or Fox. (That is for over-the-air TV
channels, as opposed to the Fox and CNN cable news networks.) (012)
The survey had the following kinds of questions: (013)
1. Which TV news programs the viewers watched most frequently. (014)
2. Their knowledge of current events (as tested by multiple-
choice questions). (015)
3. And for each question, their feeling of certainty in the
correctness of their choice. (016)
It turned out that Fox viewers had the *lowest* number of
correct choices, but the *highest* confidence that their
choices were correct. (017)
Even more significantly, there is a satirical news program
called The Daily Show. It turned out that viewers who said
that The Daily Show was their primary source for news scored
spectacularly higher in knowledge of current events than those
who said that their primary source was the Fox cable news network. (018)
In short, it's definitely not clear whether (a) common sense
is adequate or (b) people usually exercise common sense. (019)
John (020)
_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
Subscribe/Config: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (021)
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.463 / Virus Database: 269.6.1/776 - Release Date: 25/04/2007 12:19 (022)
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.463 / Virus Database: 269.6.1/776 - Release Date: 25/04/2007 12:19 (023)
_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
Subscribe/Config: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (024)
|