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Re: [ontolog-forum] [ontology-summit] Estimating number of all known fac

To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Ontology Summit 2012 discussion <ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "lavern@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <lavern@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Simon Spero <sesuncedu@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 19:52:41 -0400
Message-id: <CADE8KM6bRAd4QKTon__OrMboHLEeD+VpqiP=zH2yfofj6BRYbw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
I'm not sure that there is any simple relationship between the total amount of data that is stored on disk and the number of known facts; I'm not even sure that there's there's a simple relation between the amount of data and the amount of information (especially where DNA and RNA sequence data; there's a lot of similarity between Lampreys).  

I'm also not sure that there are any useful answers without further qualification to question of  the number of known facts in the universe that do not require accepting the KK-thesis (that knowing something means that you know that you know it).  One could (de)generatively argue that the number is  some uncountable infinity (e.g. it is a fact that: {1.0} is a member of the power set of real numbers, and that fact is known in the universe). 

Simon


On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 6:28 PM, Obrst, Leo J. <lobrst@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I think if you consider the basic fact as either a mono or binary predicate, and then everything else is derived from those, you can gauge.

 

The total sum of stored data has been estimated (not quite the same notion): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12419672, http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/12/1934244/the-sum-total-of-the-worlds-knowledge-250-exabytes. But apparently that was as of 2007 and just published in Science Express in February, 2011.

 

See http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6025/60.abstract for the original story, once you peel back the blogger crap.

 

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

 

Thanks,

Leo

 

From: ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of matthew lange
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 6:06 PM
To: lavern@xxxxxxxxxxxx; [ontolog-forum]; [ontolog-summit]
Subject: Re: [ontology-summit] Estimating number of all known facts

 

Billions is several orders of magnitude too small, to be sure--but then again you were talking about beholders, not the facts themselves...wiuch leads me to think that we perhaps could estimate a ballpark average number of facts that a beholder needs to know for various levels of sophistication in particular knowledge domains--including "common sense".
In addition to ability--Malcolm Gladwell's, 10,000 hours must be roughly translatable in terms of "knowable entities".
Just looking for ballpark here...surely someone has investigated this in terms of knowledge engineering...

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 2:28 PM, LaVern Pritchard <lavern@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The number of known facts is unknowable because a fact is in the eye of the beholder or a label, there are billions of beholders and labelers, no way to know what they individually know or how they label or to eliminate duplicates.

There are estimates I've seen from time to time about the amount of "stuff" in electronically stored form. But facts are slippery things.

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On 5/21/2012 2:59 PM, matthew lange wrote:

Hi everyone,
I am trying locate published works related to estimates on how quickly
our web of knowledge is expanding: that is, estimations on the number of
known facts in the universe, how quickly this is growing, knowledge
domains with particular growth rates, etc. I would be delighted if
someone could point me in the right direction, especially toward peer
reviewed resources.
Also, my apologies for cross-posting, I do practice good netiquette, but
I didn't know which list was more appropriate--happy to receive guidance
here as well.
Best,
~mc


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