Tag Archives: ontology
07 Dec Probability of Understanding Meaning
Some suggest that computers can achieve full language understanding capabilities using statistical models. Others argue that heuristics or programmatic interpretation that uses special procedures tailored to linguistic phenomena. The two camps are as far apart as ever. Consider the comments around this recent article on Tor.com. On the one side, Norvig demonstrates the validity […]
12 Nov Context Powers Backward Chaining Logic
A popular success strategies book suggests that if we “Begin with the End in Mind” we are likely to get where we’re going more consistently. We wander less if we think about what we want at the end from the very first steps of our journeys. Context helps us do that. Human behaviorists and philosophers have […]
10 Nov Seeking a Universal Theory of Knowledge
As a fundamental premise for this post, this blog as a whole, and my life’s work, I propose that language and “real world knowledge” are inextricably connected, and neither functions well without the other. This is why, in my opinion, natural language processing (NLP) initiatives focusing exclusively, or even primarily on language structure have significant […]
19 Oct Think Before You Speak?
How closely is your brain connected to your mouth? Please don’t answer that. I want to blog about it for awhile so hold the thought. There is a bunch of electrical activity in the brain around organizing concepts into context, and a bunch more around putting your thoughts into words. This organizing and putting may […]
18 Sep Context is King Indeed
There are many important innovations adding context to business processes and data to make information access, collaboration and analysis more effective. I just read another great perspective on context in collaboration showing how taxonomies add value to teams of knowledge workers. Adding context is especially needed in moving toward the knowledge enterprise. I contend that […]
07 Sep Quest for the Knowledge Enterprise
Do you need a Private Eye? As an Intelligence Professional, my mission was to seek out information that others were trying to conceal. Do you ever feel like that is too often your task when trying to find the answers to life’s persistent questions, or even something you need to buy? In an enterprise, those answers […]
31 Aug Building a Cathedral of Knowledge
Good fiction, especially good historical fiction, gets my brain spinning. Ken Follett‘s The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End describe the technology, born in the “Dark Ages” in which mortal men were able, with limited technologies, to build edifices that could stand throughout the ages. At the same time as Mr. Follett’s mythical cathedral […]
29 Aug Black Boxes: Specialized Areas of the Brain
The Black Box Black Box is a term used to describe a mechanical device that does something inside, but whose functions are not visible from the outside. Specialized areas of the brain may operate as black boxes. Activation flows in and activation flows out, and what happens inside may have no direct affect on other […]
21 Aug How Do You Think?
Weighing the Options As part of my quest for the truly intelligent system, I have invested much in investigating and attempting to describe how people think. I am particularly concerned with how people integrate multiple ideas or constraints into their thinking and decision-making processes. More ideas help make better decisions: consider my posts on exformation and […]
