SUO: Re: Monosemy, Semantics, and Natural Language
Len,
I agree:
> So I am not that optimistic that the semantic
> web or even Global Justice XML can make the
> problems go away. The mammals are relentlessly
> innovative and quite experienced at resisting
> legislated definitions.
Speaking of mammals, my cats are very good
at finding "work arounds" for any legislation,
and they don't even use natural language --
they just use the fuzzy logic in or on their heads.
Following is another overoptimistic quotation
from the Seybold report:
Knowledge assets and tools enable professionals
to research questions, alternatives and trade offs.
The replacement for searching is the creation of
ontological hierarchies filled with abstract models
defined semantically by the relationships and
associations that are explicit within the ontology.
The expectation is that critical issues and questions,
which used to take months to answer, can be researched
and evaluated in hours to reach the point of decisive
recommendation.
Can you imagine how legislating any definition
(say "marriage, for example) would cut off
debate in hours instead of months?
> My intuition is that the semantic web will
> spawn a lot of profitable jobs.
Oh, I'm sure, at least for the beltway bandits and
their cohorts. But the real question is how much
profit, if any, it will generate for anybody who
needs to solve any real problem.
John