Re: SUO: Re: Sign Relations & Communication
From: "Cathy Legg" <clegg@cyc.com>
> > [1] http://robustai.net/mentography/intensionExtension.gif
> >
> Seth I had a look at your diagram, but I am not sure what aim it is
> serving. Could you perhaps illustrate this with a use of the diagram to
> explicate a particular concrete example of sign-usage?
Well the case of a cat named "Yojo" in this diagram may be the best
concrete example I have:
http://robustai.net/mentography/semiosis2.jpg ... many thanks to John Sowa.
However it does not get close to the purpose of such diagrams in general.
Perhaps you could get the drift of that purpose better from the mentograph:
http://robustai.net/mentography/semios4.gif
or from the animation
http://robustai.net/mentography/quantification.html
or from a very old, historical plan
http://robustai.net/mentography/cmap_vs_sem.gif
But the purpose of the diagrams is just to be able to cut through the
complexities of linear syntaxes and express in a picture the same meaning as
some complex set of statements. I have found this necessary for working
on ontologies primarily because, otherwise, I get very confused. With a
diagram, however, the immediacy of the diagram tells you the identity of the
thing represented. Of course the real practical value of mentographs is
that we can translate the arrows directly into database records.
> In general I would be loath to take Peirce's concept of the interpretant
> of a sign and turn it into an explicit piece of formalism (which then
> would require its own interpretation). As I understand it, what
> interpretations a particular sign is giving rise to now, and will give
> rise to in the future, always remains an open question, and thus cannot
> be formalised. (Messy, I know).
Well yes if we consider only human minds. But computers are quite different
... we can put a diagram of their interpertation of some predicament inside
their databases and then contrive with programs that they behave according
to their master's interpretation of that diagram :)
> Apologies if I am missing something.
Not at all ... it's quite a privilege to finally exchange words with someone
from CycCorp. When are we to get the new open cyc modules ?
Seth Russell