- From: Sanjay Sharma <leoaugust@y...>
- To: xml-dev@l..., Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
- Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 15:11:58 -0400
Re: NPR, Godel, Semantic Web
-- quote
--------From: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
Given the *extreme* mathematical contortions he had to go through
in
establishing this, I'd be surprised if this were notable among
the
obstacles facing the construction of the semantic web.
----quote -------
I don't
think people will have problem impinging upon the semantic web the implications
of Godel's Theorem with alarming regularity. Godel had to go through extreme
contortions because he had rationality as his driving force. But people are not
rational to begin with, and so those "contortions" will arise naturally in the
semantic web which has more than just a small sample of people.
And then
the very element that may cause the semantic web to take off will also
cause it undergo those contortions - economics. It is all about creating a
supply and demand in space and time - without this potential difference there is
no driving force. And we are well aware that businesses may artificially create
supply and demand if there is none there to begin with. Two sides will
always be created and, both sides formed may not subscribe to the same
principles of rationality.
So, I
guess what I am driving at is that, the very nature of business will cause the
semantic web to self-reflect. If the contortions that cause the system to expand
don't arise naturally, then the contortions shall be caused by the people
who inhabit the system to increase the economic activity, as they themselves
self-reflect.
Sanjay
Subject: Re: NPR, Godel, Semantic Web
- From: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
- To: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>,
xml-dev@l...
>I was driving home from the hardware store yesterday when I heard a report
>on NPR about Godel's Incompleteness Theorem. It concluded with a discussion
>of the Semantic Web, with the interviewee making claims that the Semantic
>Web would run into sizable issues with Incompleteness.
To one who remembers what understanding the Goedel proof used to
feel like, this sounds deeply suspect. In the same way, the
mathematically illiterate often like to claim that this or that
ordinary visible effect is the result of the uncertainty
principle - or worse, that there's a deep parallel between
Goedel/uncertainty and some piece of politicosociomythotrophic
theory. Even Hofstadter skated close to the edge, but was
entertaining enough to get away with it.
Goedel shows that in a formal system enough rich enough to build
conventional mathematical logic on [most people have no idea
what real mathematical logic looks or smells like], the set of
true assertions is larger than the set of provable ones. Given
the *extreme* mathematical contortions he had to go through in
establishing this, I'd be surprised if this were notable among
the obstacles facing the construction of the semantic web. -T
|
Cart
