- From: Richard H. McCullough <rhm@PioneerCA.com>
- Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 01:49:59 -0800
- To: <pratt@cs.stanford.edu>, "Semantic Web at W3C" <semantic-web@w3.org>, "OWL at W3C" <www-rdf-logic@w3.org>
- Cc: "Larry Lefkowitz" <larry@cyc.com>, "John De Oliveira" <johndcyc@gmail.com>
Vaughan I read your report on Cyc, and would like to offer you a little insight into the relation between mKE/mKR and Cyc/CycL. 1. Theoretically, both systems have the same "power", but Cyc/CycL is way ahead in terms of current knowledge content. For example, Cyc 1.0 has about 7000 contexts (Microtheories), and I have never worked with more than a half dozen. mKE does have a lot of built-in consistency checks; it has found many problems in the Cyc Upper Ontology. Further, I propose replacing the current plethora of Type classes with a few "horizontal" relations (details to be determined). Although mKE/mKR has the "power", I have made no attempt to reproduce human common-sense reasoning. I call mKR a "Real Intelligence" language. mKR is designed to augment human intelligence (to help a person "work smarter"), not to equal human intelligence artificially. I have designed mKR to be able to record any human knowledge. mKR includes all NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) concepts -- universal concepts found in all human natural languages. 2. Given that Cyc/NL does not yet exist, I'd say that mKE/mKR has a better user interface. mKR is a "programming language", but its English-like syntax & semantics are more user-friendly than the LISP-like syntax & semantics of CycL. I have informally proposed to Cycorp that: a. Cyc/mKR be used as a temporary substitute for Cyc/NL; b. mKR be used as an import/export language for Cyc; c. mKE/mKR be used as command-line interface to Cyc. (I already have a working version, but it's not very robust). No official response from Cycorp as yet. 3. Cyc does have a very nice internet browser interface. mKE has no internet browser interface . (But it can execute a browser so a human user can look at another knowledge base). Dick McCullough knowledge := man do identify od existent done; knowledge haspart proposition list; http://mKRmKE.org/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Vaughan Pratt" <pratt@cs.stanford.edu> To: "Semantic Web at W3C" <semantic-web@w3.org>; "OWL at W3C" <www-rdf-logic@w3.org> Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 11:28 PM Subject: Re: Cyc Subject Predicate Object > > Mark Montgomery wrote: >> A fairly common and in my view accurate position coming primarily from >> education related scientists suggests that the guild has become so >> effective in modern times that it would protect itself against an >> Einstein or da Vinci from ever being discovered, who today many believe >> may never make it through public education due to the dysfunction of our >> institutions. > > Ontology being the study of ta onta, Greek for what there is, what you > wrote could conceivably count as a contribution to ontology by asserting > that there is a guild and giving its attributes. > > You're quite right about the guild. It is alive and well today, and > continues to work to protect itself against the likes of CYC. > > Just don't underestimate the guild of a century ago, which managed to > protect itself against Einstein himself by granting faculty positions to > three of his fellow graduates in 1901, leaving Einstein to scramble for a > job in the patent office. At least he got a job -- in Galileo's day he > would have been sentenced to house arrest (assuming he recanted) for > anything so radical and obviously wrong as relativity. > > That's not to extrapolate that now the guild is greatly weakened. You're > right about the power of the guild, just as L. Ron Hubbard was right about > the power of SMERSH. The Guild today will be The Matrix of tomorrow, able > to protect itself against a Larry Lessig or Jerry Yang from ever being > discovered. Today's luminaries are lucky not to have been born a few > centuries earlier by the evidence of history, nor a century hence by the > evidence of your reasoning. > > I should know: I work for The Guild. See my efforts to protect it against > CYC at http://boole.stanford.edu/cyc.html > > Vaughan Pratt > >
Received on Saturday, 17 February 2007 09:50:35 UTC