Yes, many of our inanimate "friends" seem to have qualities that don't
reduce to the standard explanations. In part this shows our lack of
understanding about the states they get into as complex mechanisms along
with what seems to be the human bias to see agency in our universe. (01)
As I said in another context, at times it humbling to think how far the
gap is between reality and our formulations of it, but I balance this
with a sense of progress being made despite the sometimes erratic
pattern. (02)
Gary Berg-Cross, Ph.D.
Spatial Ontology Community of Practice (SOCoP)
http://www.visualknowledge.com/wiki/socop
Executive Secretariat
Semantic Technology
EM&I
Suite 350 455 Spring park Place
Herndon VA 20170
703-742-0585 (03)
-----Original Message-----
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kathryn
Blackmond Laskey
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 8:59 AM
To: [ontolog-forum]
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Car attitudes (04)
Some years ago, we owned a white Plymouth Voyager minivan. It had an
attitude! (05)
There was something funny with the electrical system of that car.
Every once in a while, the wipers would decide for no apparent reason
to do a couple of swipes. The kids would say: "It's waving at us!"
Sometimes its door-open sensors would trip, even though all the doors
were shut tight. This would trigger the lights to flash on and off
in warning, a bell tone to sound, and the already-locked doors to
lock themselves again with a loud click. (06)
As the car got older and more crotchety, these things would happen
more and more often. Occasionally, a drive down the highway would be
punctuated with a near-constant sequence of wiper-waves,
light-flashes, bell-tones, and lock-clicks. We used to wonder what
we had done to offend the vehicle. We decided maybe we should stop
talking in its presence about how worn-out it was getting and whether
it was time to get a new car. (07)
We managed to nurse that car to 100,000 miles. It did long service to
our family. The older two children learned to drive on it, and it
became their car. When it reached 999,995 miles, we took it out for
a spin. The whole family drove to the nearby Target, and took a
couple of swings around the parking lot with everyone looking over my
husband's shoulder to watch the odometer click over to 100,000. Then
we drove it home, parked it on the street, and called the Salvation
Army to come and get it. (08)
Kathy (09)
At 8:20 AM -0400 8/3/07, John F. Sowa wrote:
>Gary,
>
> > I could a surface analysis of this and come up with a possible
> > set of car attitudes. But based on others things that I think
> > I know I'm probably not on safe grounds making these "attitudes"
> > a set reflecting what's in the physical universe.
>
>When you're talking with a philosopher or a knowledge engineer,
>you are not on safe grounds with any assumption.
>
>For evidence, look at the archive of this forum.
>
>John
>
>
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