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

To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Sean.Barker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: Jenny ure <jure2@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 17:09:57 +0100
Message-id: <46D6EBD5.8000501@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
You might have hit the mark though

matthew.west@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Dear Pat,

  
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.
    

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.

Regards

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

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

 
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