RE: NPR, Godel, Semantic Web

[Sean McGrath <sean.mcgrath@propylon.com>]

At 11:52 08/05/2001 -0500, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
>But I also need the precise difference between
>Simon's thumb and mine.
>
>There is a lot of experience with semantic
>networks, prolog, etc.  I don't think the semantic
>web falls apart on technology, just that there
>are limits both in cost and competitive advantage,
>and there are issues where precision may be
>very important so being able to resolve differences
>in the knowledge bases is important.  I don't
>think Godel incompleteness is that big a deal.

Right. Bertrand Russell got very upset thanks
to Godel, but Boeing's engineers do not get upset
just because applied mathematicians
cannot nail a model which adequately captures the
concept of flight.

Many software engineers know about NP completeness and
undecidability and halting problems and so on but they
can write useful software regardless.

I think the GIT is a bit like the halting problem. Interesting,
profound, but not a showstopper unless we are trying to solve
all the words problems in some sort of Principia Conscientia.

Sean