> However, I believe the future that Francis
>sketches is a little optimistic. That the web is learning is obvious. Societies
>have been learning for centuries, why stop now. But I doubt that the web will
>evolve a semantic structure. Human knowledge has never been semantic and there
>is no reason that it should suddenly start behaving semantically.
I have some remarks and questions. I feel that the answer to the question
wether any knowledge system is semantical or not, presuming you're able to
define the concept of semantical knowledge, mainly depends on what your
viewpoint to the system you're looking at is. Posing this kind of question
is actually making the mistake of trying to fit reality into the wrong
framework or set of distinctions.
Psychology has also been messing with this problem. The discussion is/was
wether human knowledge storage and retrieval is semantic or associative (or
anything else). Most research suggests that there is considerable evidence
for both positions: it just depends on how you investigate the matter, what
the conceptual framework of your setup is. The nature or construction of
any associatively and semantically structured knowledge system is very
difficult to discern from its behaviour. A knowledge network can not be
looked upon in terms of it being semantical or not once it reflects some
reality.
>In fact, I
>would claim that with increasing amounts of information, knowledge becomes less
>semantic.
What then is the difference between more or less semantical knowledge?
>And with all individuals in the world connected there is great danger of
>epidemics and large-scale diseases which undermine a semantic structure.
Epidemics would probably affect the functioning of any system. Why would a
semantic structure be more (or less) vulnerable?
<knip>
__________________________________________________________________________
+++ Johan Bollen Principia Cybernetica Assistant ++++++++++
+ Free University of Brussels, Pleinlaan 2, PO, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium +
+ Phone:+32-2-6412525; Fax:+32-2-6412489; Email: jbollen@vnet3.vub.ac.be +
+----> URL(info,bio,pict): http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/infoJB.html <----- +
+++++++++++ Het is een monster, maar ik heb het geschapen. +++++++++++++