The argument against the semantic web: life is Fuzzy!
Shirky has an excellent piece on why the Semantic Web doesn't work, or at least is overstated.
He describes the science of syllogisms and deductive reasoning is inappropriate for the non-mathematic or everyday use of languages. The system breaks down with the use of generalizations.
His arguments puts the idea to rest permanantly for me. I can already imagine the ways that the semantic web could be destroyed by spammers, not unlike the way google is being taken out right now.
I can see the idea of "frames" overcoming some of the problems that he talks about, however the Semantic Web is not Frames. You can deduct the result.
Shirky's answer to the SW failings: Weblogs and RSS, the best source of meta-data on the web and it's here now.
"There are significant disadvantages to this process relative to the shining vision of the Semantic Web, but the big advantage of this bottom-up design and adoption is that it is actually working now."
He does dismiss the problem of conflicting ontologies, but that's ok with me, since the only way that problem will ever be solved is how it has always been solved since the beginning, through dialog. Dialog is what the internet makes possible on the global scale, not the perpetuation of a single "world-view". It seems that the very nature of the internet is to challenge and fragment all such views. Courage to proponents of the Semantic Web, it will be an uphill battle.
Recent blog posts
- 1239482 seconds since last panic
- Tag Folders (or maybe just smart folders) broken after 10.6.1 upgrade
- Hard to clean spots, No. 8: My Work folder
- Updating to DockSpaces 2.45 breaks FlowSpaces PLIST hacks
- Hard to clean spots, No. 7: My Databases folder
- Hard to clean spots, No. 6: My Documents folder
- Whats with these Stacks 'Drawers' anyhow?
- Hard to clean spots, No. 5: My Desktop
- Hard to clean spots, No. 4: My Applications Folder
- Hard to clean spots, No. 3: My Downloads Folder
bookmark
tuals 0.1 on del.icio.us
