SUO: RE: RE: RE: On the relevance of EXPRESS, EPISTLE, etc. to SUO -- RE: RE: RE: Some Procedural Suggestions
Dear Matthew,
> > PJ: It could be interesting and worthwhile in terms of understanding
> > limitations and potentials for future development, to explore
> > the question
> > in terms of the component concepts "life" and "the universe":
> >
> > How would you represent the concept "Life" in EPISTLE? More
> > specifically,
> > how would EPISTLE represent the various senses of the word
> > "life" that are
> > defined, e.g., in WordNet?
>
> MW: Sorry I'm not familiar with WordNet. However, anything that
> is living is
> a spatio-temporal extent (a piece of space time). "Living" is a class that
> some pieces of space time are members of, and any of the other senses of
> "life" that WordNet has would be treated similarly. In essence it is the
> population that defines the meaning, though there is no problem about
> backing that up with axioms that apply to members of the class.
PJ: WordNet is described at http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn/. In case
they are interesting in bringing out different aspects of EPISTLE, here are
the definitions of different senses for the word "life" from WordNet 1.6:
1. a characteristic state or mode of living, "social life", "city life",
"real life"
2. the experience of living, the course of human events and activities. "he
could no longer cope with the complexities of life"
3. the course of existence of an individual; the actions and events that
occur in living. "he hoped for a new life in Australia"; "he wanted to live
his own life without interference from others".
4. the condition of living or the state of being alive. "while there's life
there's hope." "life depends on many chemical and physical processes".
5. the period during which something is functional (as between birth and
death). "the battery had a short life". "he lived a long and happy life".
6. the period between birth and the present time. "I have known him all his
life."
7. the period from the present until death. "he appointed himself emperor
for life."
8. a living person. "his heroism saved a life".
9. animation and energy in action or expression. "it was a heavy play and
the actors tried in vain to give life to it."
10. living things collectively. "the oceans are teeming with life."
11. the organic phenomenon that distinguishes living organisms from
nonliving ones. "there's no life on the moon".
12. an account of the series of events making up a person's life.
13. a motive for living. "pottery was his life".
[...]
PJ: Thanks very much for your discussion of my questions about
representations for "universe", which I have elided since I have no further
questions, at least for the moment.
> > More
> > broadly, how
> > would EPISTLE represent the concept of a "multiverse" as
> > postulated in the
> > "many worlds interpretation" of quantum mechanics?
>
> MW: I am not familiar with this, so either you can deduce how to
> do it from
> what I have already said, or you need to give me a more detailed
> description.
PJ: I think that you have indicated at least the direction for your answer
to this with your discussion of alternate universes. For an interesting
discussion of the concept of multiverse, see David Deutsch's "The Fabric of
Reality" -- he gives a very persuasive argument for the existence of the
multiverse, based on the two-slit experiment in quantum mechanics... It is a
fascinating, thought-provoking book...
PJ: It seems that the representation of concepts from quantum theory could
(at least eventually) be an interesting area for ontology -- how to
represent quantum interference between alternate universes, how to represent
entities that are both waves and particles, etc...
Regards,
Phil Jackson
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