xml-dev - Re: RDF, the "semantic web", and the nadir of AI (was RE: Realist ic pro

[ht@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Henry S. Thompson)]

Jonathan.Robie@SoftwareAG-USA.com writes:

<snip/>

> The problem with semantic networks in the 1970s was not that it is hard to
> reason about databases of assertions.

With respect, that was _precisely_ the problem.  It was easy (still
is, c.f. CYC) to build up a large and apparently 'meaningful' net.
Getting serious work done with an inference engine working from that
net proved to be the problem.  See Bill Woods's masterly analysis
_What's in a Link', and Brian Smith's _The Owl and the Electric
Encyclopaedia', which ought to be required reading for anyone
contemplating real work with metadata.

ht

[1] What's in a link: foundations for semantic networks
Author(s): William A. Woods
Book     : Representation and Understanding
Subtitle : Studies in Cognitive Science
Editor(s): Daniel G. Bobrow,  Allen M. Collins
Note     : Reprinted in R. J. Brachman and H. J. Levesque, eds, {\it
           Readings in Knowledge Representation}, pp.~217--241. Los Altos, Ca.:
           Morgan Kaufmann, 1985

[2] The Owl and the Electric Encyclopaedia
Author(s): Brian C. Smith
Journal  : Artificial Intelligence
Volume   : 47
Pages    : 251-288
Year     : 1991
-- 
  Henry S. Thompson, HCRC Language Technology Group, University of Edinburgh
          W3C Fellow 1999--2001, part-time member of W3C Team
     2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, SCOTLAND -- (44) 131 650-4440
	    Fax: (44) 131 650-4587, e-mail: ht@cogsci.ed.ac.uk
		     URL: http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/