Re: Comments on Section 3

Hi David,

On Mon, Apr 14, 2003 at 06:17:09PM -0400, David R. Karger wrote:
>    The main problem that I have with this approach is that I don't consider
>    two files to be the same just because they happen to have the same 
>    content.  Likewise two facts.
> 
> If by file you mean a specific arrangement of magnetic particles on a
> specific disk drive, I agree with you.  But I also think it valuable
> to envision a unique, platonic ideal of a certain bit sequence (and it
> is that I want to associate with an MD5).  A lot of the assertions
> that people make about a file are, I think, actually about those
> platonic bits.  "These bits were written by David" (and ditto for much
> else of the dublin core), "These bits are 100 bytes long" and "these
> bits are currently stored at http://foo".
> 

Actually by file I mean an entry in a directory structure, on an 
operating system which maintains directory structures.  

> I feel the same way about statements (I'm not going to try to define
> facts).  An "a R b" statement is unique.  If two people make the same
> "a R b" statement then that is exactly what happened: they asserted
> the SAME statement.

Just because the content of the statement is identical doesn't mean that
you can validly collapse all of the statements with that content to a 
single instance.  The content will remain identical even if there are
multiple instances, but the address distinction between the statements
will be lost if the instances are collapsed.  Neccessarily therefor, 
collapsed statements represent a loss of information.

The only time that you can validly collapse statements without a loss
of information is when the statements are both inaddressable and 
immutable.

Your argument that the users intent all along should have been to 
assert the same instance as had been asserted previously is presuming 
to know the intent of the user.   If the user had that intent, then 
there is no reason for them not to use the preexisting statement 
directly.

Cheers,
-kls

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Received on Tuesday, 15 April 2003 10:30:34 UTC