Re: SUO: -- Technical Methodology
Erik and Pat,
Yes, I am serious about making progress:
EL> The fact that there is resistant to this kind of thing
> is baffling, particulary with the case of John Sowa, who
> has been such a stalwart contributor for so long it hardly
> seems plausible that he isn't serious about progress.
> What's the problem?
The problem is finding a method that will avoid George Orwell's
Newspeak in the book 1984. (See quotations below.)
We can have a single ontology that can accommodate everybody
in the same way that an unabridged dictionary can accommodate
everybody's word usage. There are two alternatives:
1. Put everything in it and rename those alternatives that
are mutually exclusive.
2. Develop a modular framework that can accommodate mutually
exclusive alternatives.
There is plenty of work to do in developing such a standard.
For the alternative of "abridging" the dictionary based on
somebody's desire to eliminate options, see below.
John
_____________________________________________________________
Quotations from http://www.gerenser.com/1984/quote.html
"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of
thought?… Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050,
at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could
understand such a conversation as we are having now?…The whole climate
of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we
understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking — not needing to think.
Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." —Syme, pg 46-47
"In Oceania at the present day, Science, in the old sense, has almost
ceased to exist. In Newspeak there is no word for 'Science.' The
empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of
the past were founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles of
Ingsoc." —pg 159
Even more frightening is the poll on the previous page:
http://www.gerenser.com/1984/
"Do you believe our society may one day be like the world depicted
in 1984?"
55% of the respondents said "Very possible", 16% said "Not sure",
and 28% said absolutely not.