On Dec 1, 2007, at 1:23 AM, Paul Bowers wrote:
> I challenge you all to read and weigh in with insightful comments.
But seriously now--let's pretend we all know what ontology means, and
look at what's being attempted.
According to Barry Smith--
> Before proposing an ontology for a given domain, accordingly, its
> custodians have a duty to maximize the likelihood that it will
> provide for the needs of maximally large numbers of potential users
ISO 15926 is actually based on the assumption that the future of
plant engineering and the impact of yet-to-be-invented technologies
is predictable. I don't think that's valid.
It also assumes that people are going to organize themselves around a particular model adopted by their competition. That's unrealistic. In some ways it'd be nice, because lots of time and money is wasted by companies stumbling around convinced that everyone else is out of step, But it also means that real geniuses, like Steve Jobs and Seymour Cray, don't attract the attention they deserve because they don't fit in the box.
IGES is a good example of the result of this sort of thing. It's still a very useful technology and a fine idea, but every CAD developer in the world flogs his own technology as the best solution, simply in an effort to gain a competitive edge They all do IGES in one way or another, some pretty good, even useful, but they all push their own approach and IGES often takes hind tit.
UNIX is another. Supposedly it's the universal OS, but it hasn't worked out quite like that, because everyone has his own UNIX. By default most of the world uses Intel chips in their computers (personal computers anyway), which means that Macs and those other boxes are pretty much sisters under the skin. But is Intel really the best CPU because it's the biggest seller and the current standard? that's like saying Walmart is better than Nordstroms because it's bigger.
Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant at <a href="/group/PipingDesign/post?postID=PUa9JBeWSMQBMkAWP28EteSvQQJvhUsdw6qzvhCbW5gZYeEeEqIKD_WpNmKDNXT0k4UT8l7kI46uu9k">chrisw@skypoint.com</a> | this distance" (last words of Gen.
.......................................| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania1864)
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