> Dear Doug, (01)
> Thanks for clarifying that point about
> MicroTheories <=> Context. (02)
> Your description of what exactly is in a
> microtheory sounds like a fruitful thing to study.
> You gave a reference to your book (03)
I only have a chapter in the book. TAO - Theory and Applications of
Ontology. Volume II: Ontology: The Information-Science Stance, eds.:
Michael Healy, Achilles Kameas, Roberto Poli; Springer Berlin / Heidelberg,
2011. http://www.springer.com/philosophy/book/978-90-481-8846-8 (04)
>> See my chapter on Cyc in <u>Theory and
>> Applications of Ontology. Volume II</u>
>> for details of the microtheory system and a number
>> of different types of microtheories
>> (Vocabulary, Theory, Data, Hypothetical, ...). (05)
> Is there a URL to the book which you would
> recommend, or to papers that abstract points in the book? (06)
The papers in the book are by a wide variety of people. Springer's link
to the book is http://www.springer.com/philosophy/book/978-90-481-8846-8
where you can also see a brief summary as well as the table of contents
along with the name of the author of each chapter. (07)
> In particular, I would like to know how
> microtheories are comprised; understand the
> mapping from observations to "active microtheory
> (?)", and understand how the inheritance network
> is traversed during discourse to get to the active
> one. (08)
A microtheory comprises a set of statements and links
to other microtheories whose contents are inherited.
This (#$genlMt) inheritance is transitive, there being a directed
acyclic graph of inheritance from a set of top-level
MTs which inherit from each other. (09)
Queries are asked in CycL -- not in English. They are
posed in a microtheory -- either a previously existing
one or a temporary MT created for the purpose of asking
the question. The "active" microtheory would be the one
in which the question is asked. (010)
To give a little order to the mass of microtheories and to
prevent different theories from interfering with each other
or different sets of data causing similar problems, terms
are generally defined in a "Vocabulary Microtheory", which
has other Vocabulary Microtheories as its #$genlMts.
Different theories (sets of rules for how the concepts interact)
are defined in different "Theory Microtheories", which have
other Theory Microtheories as #$genlMts as well as the
VocabularyMicrotheory for which it is a theory. Data Microtheories
are knowledge bases which have Vocabulary Microtheories,
other Data Microtheories, and often Theory microtheories as
#$genlMts. (011)
"Hypothetical Microtheories" can be created with one or a few
statements and a set of #$genlMts. Queries can be asked in
them to determine the result of those statements being true.
If the statements conflict with statements in the #$genlMts,
depending upon the type of conflict, Cyc might block the assertion
of the statement, a #$genlMt assertion (if the statement is
already in the Hypothetical Mt, or block results at query time. (012)
You mention "discourse". Cyc does have certain NL facilities, both
for generating and interpreting NL. It uses context to reject
alternate meanings of input words that do not match with
other words in the (simple) sentence to generate a logically
valid statement. I don't know its current capabilities, but
when i left Cycorp in 2003, it was not selecting microtheories
based on what it determined from an English question. (013)
> Thanks,
>
> -Rich
>
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Rich Cooper
>
> EnglishLogicKernel.com
>
> Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com
>
> 9 4 9 \ 5 2 5 - 5 7 1 2
>
> _____
>
> From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
> Behalf Of doug foxvog
> Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2012 9:40 PM
> To: '[ontolog-forum] '
> Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Ontolgizing rain &
> snow [was: Track 1&2 Joint Mission and Session
> Abstracts]
>
>
>
> COn 26-Jan-12 5:49 PM, Rich Cooper wrote:
>
> Dear Doug,
>
> Its interesting to see the many contexts for which
> Cyc has built infrastructure. A couple of days
> ago, there was a post sequence on the Siri patent
> which described "active ontology" as though it
> were one ontology from a library of ontologies.
>>From a quick review of the patent, it seems they
> consider the "active ontology" to be the one which
> best fits the situation at hand.
>
> Since you are an accomplished expert on Cyc, can
> you enlighten the rest of us about whether Cyc
> uses the same or a similar concept, perhaps
> calling it something else than the "active
> ontology"?
>
>
> Cyc has set up a large set of contexts, which they
> call microtheories, to separate its
> definitions, theories, and data by topic. These
> microtheories are in an inheritance
> hierarchy such that topics that rely on other
> topics have the corresponding topics
> as #$genlMts. To reason about a certain set of
> data, one would normally create a
> #$DataMicrotheory and specify its closest
> #$genlMts. All the statements from the
> #$genlMts and <i>their</i>#$genlMts are inherited
> (with provision for defining
> exceptions to various rules). The microtheory in
> which a question is asked would
> correspond to SIRI's "active ontology".
>
> See my chapter on Cyc in <u>Theory and
> Applications of Ontology. Volume II</u>
> for details of the microtheory system and a number
> of different types of microtheories
> (Vocabulary, Theory, Data, Hypothetical, ...).
>
> At least by the time i left Cycorp (in 2003),
> there were few statements encoded in CycL
> that provided meta-information about what the
> microthories's topics were and what
> they were designed to be used for. Many terms had
> their #$definingMt specified, which
> meant that reasoning about them should not be done
> unless the specified microtheory
> was included in the mass of #$genlMts of the query
> microtheory. This restriction was
> not code-enforced by the end of 2003.
>
> I did not read the patent, but from the
> discussions in this forum, am led to understand
> that they have a set of rules for selecting the
> contexts (which they call ontologies) to use
> in solving a question. There had been discussion
> in Cycorp about doing such a thing,
> utilizing both the #$definingMt assertions and
> other meta-assertions about the microtheories,
> but i have seen no design work towards such a
> goal.
>
> SIRI's technique for selecting an "active
> ontology" might be novel. The idea of determining
>
> an ontology in which to ask a question is not.
>
> I hope this helps.
>
> -- doug
>
>
>
>
>
> Descriptions appreciated,
> -Rich
>
> Sincerely,
> Rich Cooper
> EnglishLogicKernel.com
> Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com
> 9 4 9 \ 5 2 5 - 5 7 1 2
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
> Behalf Of doug foxvog
> Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2012 2:04 PM
> To: [ontolog-forum]
> Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Ontolgizing rain &
> snow [was: Track 1&2 Joint Mission and Session
> Abstracts]
>
>
> Being under heavy rain bombardment for several
>
> days, a rare process in
>
> our parts, the atmospheric condition demands
>
> more attention.
>
> Doug,
>
> What about methane rain, neon rain, sulfuric
>
> acid rain, iron rain,
>
> volcanic ash rain, or rain dust, full of
>
> chemicals, minerals and silt,
>
> we have here,
> in the Med Area, each early springtime from
>
> North Africa.
>
> Cyc has not modeled extra-terrestrial rain, but it
> would be done similarly.
> Their terms for rain refer to water rain.
>
> They do have AcidRainProcess as a specialization
> of RainProcess, and
> have modeled Chemistry at the level of an
> introductory college class
> (actually: modelling the content of an AP
> chemistry text -- for those
> familiar with the US high school system).
>
> The ontology has classes and relations for
> representing material disolved
> or suspended in rainwater.
>
>
> And how to formally represent the
>
> precipitation/downfall/rain properties:
>
> types and forms, material and composition,
>
> duration and intensity, speed
>
> and noise, quantity and quality, products and
>
> results, or causes and
>
> effects ...
>
> These are all basic concepts that have been well
> thought out and
> ontologized at the generic level in Cyc. I only
> have a copy of OpenCyc
> on my computer, so don't have access to any rules
> Cycorp may have
> generated inter-relating such things .
>
> Durations are specified as (#$MinutesDuration N)
> [or another resolution];
> downfall intensity can represented as (#$PerFn
> (#$Centi #$Meter)
> #$HoursDuration); and wind speed in some
> #$UnitOfSpeed.
>
> For causality, #$causes-SitSit would relate the
> event of the storm (a
> #$PhysicalEvent which is a type of #$Situation)
> with a #$Situation which
> it has caused. To state that the storm caused
> some proposition to be
> true, one would use (#$causes-ThingProp
> BlizzardOf2012 <proposition>).
>
>
> It looks any seasonal falling to the planet of
>
> any form of material refers
>
> to precipitation, as downfall of any from of
>
> substance, rock, glass,
>
> water, etc.
>
> Cyc's #$PrecipitationProcess allows for such
> specializations of precipitation
> to be defined and reasoned about. Even without
> creating new terms,
> you could refer to #$PrecipitationParticles which
> are #$composedOf
> (#$SolutionFn (#$LiquidFn #$Water)
> #$HydrogenChloride), or one in
> which they are #$Suspensions with the
> #$suspendingFluid being one
> substance and with #$suspendedParts being some
> other substance, such
> as a (#$MobFn #$SandParticle)s.
>
> It appears that they don't have a term for
> #$VolcanicAsh
>
>
> Azamat
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "doug foxvog" <mailto:doug@xxxxxxxxxx>
> <doug@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2012 8:11 PM
> Subject: [ontolog-forum] Ontolgizing rain & snow
>
> [was: Track 1&2 Joint
>
> Mission and Session Abstracts]
>
>
> [ Also sent to ontology-summit discussion group.
>
> ]
>
> Matthew West wrote:
>
>
> I understand your view. How shall you handle
>
> rain and snow?
>
> Rain & snow refer to physical precipitation
>
> particles, the precipitation
>
> in
> bulk, the process that produces the
>
> precipitation, storms as events, and
>
> storms as objects.
>
> Cyc's representation of these different, but
>
> related things (leaving out
>
> comments and some additional statements)
>
> includes:
>
> (isa PrecipitationParticle ExistingObjectType)
> (genls PrecipitationParticle Particle)
> (genls PrecipitationParticle
>
> InanimateObject-Natural)
>
> (isa RainProcess ProcessType)
> (genls RainProcess PrecipitationProcess)
>
> (isa SnowProcess ProcessType)
> (genls SnowProcess PrecipitationProcess)
>
> (isa Rainwater ExistingStuffType)
> (genls Rainwater (LiquidFn Water-Fresh))
>
> (isa SnowMob ExistingStuffType)
> (genls SnowMob (SolidFn Water))
>
> (isa Snowflake ExistingObjectType)
> (genls Snowflake PrecipitationParticle)
> (genls (MobFn Snowflake) SnowMob)
>
> (isa Raindrop ExistingObjectType)
> (genls Raindrop PrecipitationParticle)
> (genls Raindrop Rainwater)
>
> (relationAllExists outputsGenerated
>
> PrecipitationProcess
>
> (MobFn
>
> PrecipitationParticle))
>
> (relationAllExists outputsGenerated RainProcess
>
> (MobFn Raindrop))
>
> (relationAllExists outputsGenerated SnowProcess
>
> (MobFn Snowflake))
>
> (isa StormAsObject ExistingObjectType)
> (genls StormAsObject InanimateObject-Natural)
> (relationAllExists physicalParts StormAsObject
>
> CloudInSky)
>
> (isa RainStormAsObject ExistingObjectType)
> (genls RainStormAsObject StormAsObject)
> (relationAllExists physicalParts StormAsObject
>
> CloudInSky)
>
> (relationAllExists physicalParts StormAsObject
>
> (MobFn Raindrop))
>
> (isa SnowStormAsObject ExistingObjectType)
> (genls SnowStormAsObject StormAsObject)
> (relationAllExists physicalParts StormAsObject
>
> CloudInSky)
>
> (relationAllExists physicalParts
>
> SnowStormAsObject (MobFn Snowflake))
>
> (not (relationExistsAll doneBy
>
> PrecipitationProcess StormAsObject))
>
> (comment
> (not (relationExistsAll doneBy
>
> PrecipitationProcess StormAsObject))
>
> "A StormAsObject would include Duststorms,
>
> which don't (necessarily)
>
> include precipitation.")
>
> (relationExistsAll doneBy RainProcess
>
> RainStormAsObject)
>
> (relationExistsAll doneBy SnowProcess
>
> SnowStormAsObject)
>
> (isa StormAsEvent ExistingObjectType)
> (genls StormAsEvent ImmediateWeatherProcess)
>
> (isa RainStormAsEvent ExistingObjectType)
> (genls RainStormAsEvent StormAsEvent)
> (relationAllExists subprocesses RainStormAsEvent
>
> RainProcess)
>
> (relationAllExists doneBy RainStormAsEvent
>
> RainStormAsObject)
>
> (isa SnowStormAsEvent ExistingObjectType)
> (genls SnowStormAsEvent StormAsEvent)
> (relationAllExists subprocesses SnowStormAsEvent
>
> SnowProcess)
>
> (relationAllExists doneBy SnowStormAsEvent
>
> SnowStormAsObject)
>
> (isa SnowStormAsObject ExistingObjectType)
> (genls SnowStormAsObject StormAsObject)
> (relationAllExists physicalParts
>
> SnowStormAsObject (MobFn Snowflake))
>
>
>
> Jack
> On Jan 26, 2012, at 6:09 AM, Matthew West
>
> wrote:
>
> The main problem here is one of different
>
> people using terms
>
> differently. Hardly an ontological problem per
>
> se, but certainly a
>
> problem that causes confusion in developing
>
> ontologies.
>
> This is always a problem for ontologists. The
>
> different meanings have
>
> to be teased apart.
>
>
> Interestingly as a 4 dimensionalist I don't
>
> recognise endurants at all,
>
> but I do recognise activities, physical
>
> objects, and participants.
>
> Under
> this world view all individuals (including
>
> activities, physical objects
>
> and participants) are spatiotemporal extents,
>
> and you discover that an
>
> activity consists of its participants, where a
>
> participant is the state
>
> of a physical object that participates in some
>
> activity. So I recognise
>
> the things you talk about. However, I would
>
> assign the term "system" to
>
> the physical object the participant is a state
>
> of.
>
> I would not restrict the term "system" merely to
>
> physical objects. But
>
> having multiple clearly defined concepts which
>
> different people use that
>
> word
> for in different contexts, is fine. They just
>
> need different URIs.
>
> -- doug
>
>
> Regards
>
> Matthew West
> Information Junction
> Tel: +44 1489 880185
> Mobile: +44 750 3385279
> Skype: dr.matthew.west
> matthew.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.informationjunction.co.uk/
> http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/
>
> 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.
> ...
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> _______________
>
> Msg Archives:
>
> http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontology-summit/
>
> Subscribe/Config:
>
>
> http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontology-
> summit/
>
> Unsubscribe:
>
> mailto:ontology-summit-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Community Files:
>
> http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/work/OntologySummit20
> 12/
>
> Community Wiki:
>
> http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?OntologySu
> mmit2012
>
> Community Portal: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> _______________
>
> Message Archives:
>
> http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
>
> Config Subscr:
>
> http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-f
> orum/
>
> Unsubscribe:
>
>
>
> \
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> 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
> (014)
_________________________________________________________________
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 (015)
|