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Re: [ontolog-forum] Current Semantic Web Layer pizza (was ckae)

To: <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <Sean.Barker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: <matthew.west@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 09:15:52 +0100
Message-id: <808637A57BC3454FA660801A3995FA8F05C5D558@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Dear Pat,    (01)

> >John,
> >
> >     My point was not that one could not specify how to draw a line
> >in logic, but that specifying the line does not actually 
> draw it - for
> >that you have to translate some bit stream into so motor 
> action, or to
> >switch the CRT beam on at a particular point, etc.
> 
> True, but...
> 
> >My point being, that
> >organizations do not operate computers to make lights on the 
> front flash
> >on or off, or as expensive room heaters. The meaning of a computer
> >system is always the behaviour of the organization that uses it.
> 
> ... that is rather a stretch. The meaning IS the 
> behavior?? No, the behavior depends (in part) on 
> the meaning: but the meaning is what it is even 
> if nobody acts on the information.
> 
> A very basic problem with your point is that it 
> seems to force us to adopt a process-based or 
> procedural approach to semantics, which takes us 
> exactly in the reverse direction of the evolution 
> from hard-wired specific codings to assertional 
> ontologies which has got us to the present. This 
> much progress was hard-won, and it would be a 
> great shame to be taken back to UML, or maybe 
> even Fortran, by worries arising from management 
> theory.    (02)

MW: I think you are missing the point. Let me make a golfing analogy.
With a declarative language you can describe the golf course and
you can describe how a ball behaves when it is hit. But you can't
hit the ball. So in addition to your declarative language you need
something that executes instructions. This isn't about a process
approach instead of declarative (for me at least) but about 
understanding the limits of a declarative approach.    (03)

Regards    (04)

Matthew West
Reference Data Architecture and Standards Manager
Shell International Petroleum Company Limited
Registered in England and Wales
Registered number: 621148
Registered office: Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA, United Kingdom    (05)

Tel: +44 20 7934 4490 Mobile: +44 7796 336538
Email: matthew.west@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.shell.com
http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/    (06)


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