Re: Reification quoting in RDF/N3 was: A note comparing Conceptual Graphs and RDF/Semantic Web

> what mechanism is to be used to bind a semantically empty
> string to a property, on the web, using rdf language? Binding that
> string to a URI isn't adequate in itself and I think it's an error to
> conflate a unique entity with a meaningful one.

True. But I'm not discussing *why* we would want to do this, only *how*.

> I grant you that "namespaced:loves", "tomahto:tomato",
> "tomayto:tomato" and suchlike really gets you out of a
> hole with controlling any such ambiguity (on the assumption
> that programs which share terms share processes).

Yes: it's fully posible to have a property name that isn't anything like
the property... I could define myns:author as being how many carrots
someone owns. But that's not a problem, becuse you can call equivalence,
and say well this is a fundamental term, and it ties into these. That's
what the SW is about, groups of fundamental properties, so that you can
translate a into a+1 or, even x into y if they are performing the same
functions.

> When the web is presented to a person that person will impose
> semantics. That doesn't in any way make a web with machine
> processable semantics. I'm sorry if I'm being a PITA about this,
> but it's important to avoid invoking generalised AI handwaving
> and automagicking demons.

No, I fully agree. The SW can't/won't/shouldn't be any form of AI.. it's
just machines processing data in very useful ways. Humans always have the
last laugh, so transmitting the data correctly is the most important thing.

--
Kindest Regards,
Sean B. Palmer
@prefix : <http://infomesh.net/2001/01/n3terms/#> .
[ :name "Sean B. Palmer" ] has :homepage <http://infomesh.net/sbp/> .

Received on Friday, 19 January 2001 12:56:09 UTC