Dear Ed, (01)
>
> Well, at the rate of 1 "generation" per 5 years in the IT community,
> the
> fact that it might indeed require 2-3 generations does not strike me as
> daunting. (02)
[MW] Yes. Every so often you have to look back and see how far you have
come, rather than worry about how far you have to go. (03)
>
> It is my impression that the existing upper ontology work has
> demonstrated all of the following:
> - that there are certain essentially mathematical concepts that can
> be
> codified and shared by many practical ontologies (04)
[MW] Agreed. Especially set theory and in particular set membership and
subset/superset. (05)
> - that beyond that one can create several levels of upper categories
> that solve no problem of themselves and are directly useful only to the
> development of possibly useful mid-level ontologies that still solve no
> problem of themselves. (06)
[MW] I don't think that is right. Picking 3D or 4D on its own of course
doesn't solve any particular problem (except you do have to choose), but
mereotopology belongs at this level, and is directly useful. (07)
> - that the upper level categorization requires ontological
> commitments
> that are largely irrelevant to the real problem spaces but create
> serious impediments to the merger of mid-level ontologies. (08)
[MW] Well actually I'd rather have the ontological commitments stated
explicitly, than have to discover them with detective work. Either they have
been made, or the resultant system is somewhat ambiguous and is likely to
cause problems. (09)
> I, for one, would prefer to see the next 5+ years spent on in vivo
> testing of knowledge engineering concepts, and on the development of a
> discipline. Think of it as the medical experience that will give us
> some knowledge of the required properties of your panacea. (010)
[MW] I agree. It would be a good idea to know what we are doing before doing
it on a large scale. (011)
Regards (012)
Matthew West
Information Junction
Tel: +44 560 302 3685
Mobile: +44 750 3385279
matthew.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/ (013)
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>
> -Ed
>
> --
> Edward J. Barkmeyer Email: edbark@xxxxxxxx
> National Institute of Standards & Technology
> Manufacturing Systems Integration Division
> 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8263 Tel: +1 301-975-3528
> Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8263 FAX: +1 301-975-4694
>
> "The opinions expressed above do not reflect consensus of NIST,
> and have not been reviewed by any Government authority."
>
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