At 11:38 AM -0800 1/22/08, Duane Nickull wrote:
On 1/22/08 11:29 AM, "John F. Sowa"
<sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> When we say "See you at noon", we certainly don't mean
at
> 12:00:00.000000000000000000...
>
> If several of us gather "at noon". What criterion
would you
> suggest for claiming that we all arrived "on time"?
>
> I'm willing to admit that perhaps it's impossible to define
a
> domain-independent axiomatization
that could answer such questions.
Of course the ontology's 'points' may not be really point-like in
the real world. Nevertheless, they are conceptually points within the
ontology's world-view. Noon is a point. The fact that we often use the
term sloppily does not make it any less pointlike for reasoning
purposes. If something is true until noon and also from noon onwards,
we don't expect it to be false for a few minutes in the middle.
Contrast the train service in Switzerland
vs. the bus schedule in Vancouver.
In the context of the railroad industry in Switzerland, one could
literally
set their watch to a precision of within 1 minute from the point a
train
stops moving on the tracks upon arriving at a station. In Vancouver,
the bus
schedules with frequencies of more than one bus every ten minutes
are
disregarded as each bus can be up to to 8 minutes before or behind.
In
Vancouver, when we say noon, we really mean anytime between 12:10 and
12:45.
No one arrives right at noon in my circle of friends except for my
German
wife.
Many years ago my family took up temporary residence in Geneva.
We were invited to an informal dinner party, and arrived (fortunately)
a few minutes early. In the hallway outside the apartment a small
group of people were waiting, chatting amiably. As the invitation time
approached, one of the group looked carefully at his watch and, with
his finger poised over the bell button, waited until the second hand
came up to the hour, then pressed the button on the very second. It
was opened immediately by the hostess, who clearly had been
waiting just inside for the same moment to arrive. I understood then
why Swiss watchmaking was so universally admired.
Pat
;-)
Duane
--
**********************************************************************
"Speaking only for myself"
Senior Technical Evangelist - Adobe Systems, Inc.
Blog - http://technoracle.blogspot.com
Community Music - http://www.mix2r.com
My Band - http://www.myspace.com/22ndcentury
Adobe MAX 2008 -
http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2007/08/adobe-max-2008.html
**********************************************************************
_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
Subscribe/Config:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
IHMC(850)434 8903 or (650)494 3973 home
40 South Alcaniz St.(850)202 4416 office
Pensacola(850)202 4440 fax
FL 32502(850)291 0667 cell
phayesAT-SIGNihmc.us
http://www.ihmc.us/users/phayes
_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
Subscribe/Config: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (01)