Dear Rob, (01)
> On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 10:00 AM, Patrick Cassidy <pat@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > ...
> > If you think that *every* application that wants to communicate
> > accurately with *any* other application could do so by a different
> tactic
> > with that degree of ease, I would certainly be interested in learning
> how.
>
> John can answer for himself, but my answer is that the real reason for
> not backing a FO is not the cost or the need. The real reason is that
> a comprehensive FO is impossible. (02)
MW: It depends what you mean by comprehensive, and it depends what you want
to be able to do.
>
> The evidence is that there will always be more than one way of looking
> at the world, and generally these ways will be contradictory. (03)
MW: Yes. But for interoperability (Pat's interest) that is not a problem.
You only need to pick one. You then only need to be able to map other views
into and out of it. Alternatively, if you want to capture many different
viewpoints, you can adopt John's Lattice of Theories. (04)
> This is
> an insurmountable problem for a "foundation ontology". Unless you want
> it to contradict itself. (05)
> What is needed is a way to tease apart when
> these different ways of looking at the world apply (06)
MW: To be properly a foundation ontology you should be able to deal with
life-the-universe-and-everything. So you can choose. Pragmatically, there is
no problem specifying that different theories for the same thing (say
gravity) apply in different conditions. The conditions just become part of
the theory. (07)
> (and a way to
> generate them, because the number is probably infinite.) (08)
MW: That is the lattice of theories again. (09)
Regards (010)
Matthew West
Information Junction
Tel: +44 560 302 3685
Mobile: +44 750 3385279
matthew.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.informationjunction.co.uk/
http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/ (011)
This email originates from Information Junction Ltd. Registered in England
and Wales No. 6632177.
Registered office: 2 Brookside, Meadow Way, Letchworth Garden City,
Hertfordshire, SG6 3JE. (012)
>
> -Rob
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
> Config Subscr: 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 join: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiHomePage#nid1J
> To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> (013)
_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
Config Subscr: 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 join: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiHomePage#nid1J
To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (014)
|