Re: WebArch Ambiguity about Objects, PLUS Suggested Major Replacement

> The Web is not in my computer, nor can my computer access it directly,
> though it has no problems whatsoever accessing representations of
> resources that happen to be part of the Web.  Whether that is a mind
> trick or not depends on your point of view -- I just know it works.
>
> ....Roy
>

I think the "mind trick" is the resource, and especially the notion that
there is a "web of resources".  As a second order effect, yes, but it's
confusing.

The interconnectedness of the web occurs among representations via
the technique called hypertext.  In other words, for the most part, URI
are embedded in representations.  I would even argue that a URI off by
itself is still a representation because identifiers are representations
with
special ambiguity-reducing properties.  (This insight came from playing
with Alloy models of Resource.)

There is a web of representations, behind which we intuit a "web" of
resources.  Clearly, a resource cannot literally have a URI embedded
in it, since a resource is a relational mapping of time to values, not one
of those values itself.  Resources don't really exist, even though we
need them to.

Does this sound reasonable?  Or do I miss the point?

/walden

Received on Tuesday, 31 December 2002 10:39:41 UTC