Re: [ontolog-forum] IBM Watson on Jeopardy

[Vincent Wright <Vincent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 8:18 AM, John F. Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Vincent and Rich,
VW

> If that saying were true, there'd be ZERO national security - for any country.

You need to study military history.  The leaders who win are the ones who can innovate to meet changing conditions.
But most leaders in every field aren't innovative -- they just repeat what worked last time.

JFS

What makes you think I haven't studied military history? 

And how on Earth does it advance conversation by saying things like " they just repeat what worked last time."

I've already made clear that I don't believe that contention so, your rephrasing it without adding any additional proof doesn't help.

The proposition that generals and other military leaders "just repeat what worked last time" could also be applied to ontologists - who, themselves, can get just as stuck in badly using eons old concepts, methodologies, and technologies trying to handle current information flow which won't fit into their cherished old conceptualizations...

With respect to your statement that "The most dangerous offenders are politicians who repeat half truths until they make the voters believe them.", I disagree with you there, too. 

More dangerous to me are quoters who think they're thinkers..

Had he still been alive, even Alfred North Whitehead, himself,  would roll his eyes at how vapid this old statement of his is:   "Every great truth is only half true."

If that statement is a "great truth" then it, itself, is only "half true"  - and if it's only half true then, why bother sharing it with us?

Gentlemen, I'm not really so interested in defending Generals as in defending against needless inanity.

Saying things like "...generals are very good at fighting the last war, but not the current one..." is for nothing more than sound effect - pretending that "we're better than they are"... 

The statement can't be universally proven even if we were to look at just U.S. Generals conducting just the current wars they're prosecuting.

And with that, I'll leave ontolog-forum to you good people...

Thanks, and Keep STRONG!!

+Vincent Wright

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