[sc34wg3] Re: Mathematical model (was SAM-issue term-scope-def)

[Sam Hunting]

> *Sam
> > A hearty "me too" re: this cautionary tale...
> >
> > I don't disrespect formalism (or formalisms) but it is important to
> > remember that (at least for us) they are and should be means to an end,
> > and not ends in themselves.
> 
> Agreed. It's anly a tool, so it has to have a definite function. No definite function, no
> tool.
> 
> > A lemma to Biezunski's Principle ("There's no point writing a standard
> > that noone can understand") would be "as informal as possible -- and no
> > more informal" (along the lines of Einstein's "as simple as possible, and
> > no simpler." (By "informal" I mean "written in non-obfuscatory prose.")
> 
> There I'm not sure I agree. In Einstein's mind, I guess "as simpler as possible"
> meant indeed "as formally elegant as possible" ... if you ever look at General Relativity
> formalism, you have a taste of what Einstein meant by that ... good luck

The math in Eisntein's paper (simple and elegant) is build on a foundation
of a thought experiment expressed in informal prose (simple and elegant;
non-obfuscatory).

> But that's really what applied maths are, good combination of intuitive prose in the
> definitions and axioms,
> and thereafter strong formalism allowing inference and algorithms to yield efficient
> results.
> 
> Scientists, engineers and even basic technicians have to get some learning of applied
> maths to be efficient and knowledgeable in their field. Why would not Knowledge Engineers?
> The real issue there is that information science and standards community have more looked
> so far towards formal logic, computational linguistics and the like, than applied maths
> "lingua franca". Too bad ...

Well, if IT projects generally succeeded and were generally known to
succeed, there might be some justification for not seeking to use every
tool ... As things are, I agree we need all the help we can get.


Sam Hunting
eTopicality, Inc.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Turn your searching experience into a finding experience."(tm)

Topic map consulting and training: www.etopicality.com
Free open source topic map tools:  www.goose-works.org

XML Topic Maps: Creating and Using Topic Maps for the Web.
Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-74960-2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------