The semantic web
April 13, 2001 2:02 PM Subscribe
The semantic web Might make the internet obsolete but what about my porno?
I think for the web to work again, it has to become self aware...
posted by owillis at 7:16 PM on April 13, 2001
posted by owillis at 7:16 PM on April 13, 2001
People talk about the semantic web a lot, but as I've said in emails to a few people this week, modern linguistics looks beyond pure semantics. There's a pragmatic Web out there, the parole to the semantic langue.
And I think there's more to gain from looking at pragmatics than semantics here, at least as far as the web's concerned. Remember those horrendous arguments about how HTML "wasn't meant to be a layout/design language"? Well, it became one. And if we're focused overly on a kind of programmatic certainty of meaning, it's just going to be a reinvention of SGML.
I suppose an interest in the pragmatic web counts as the desire for a sort of "self-awareness": at least, that's why I'm more interested in fuzziness, Bayesian principles, retroactive delineation: the acknowledgement that on this vast, messy scale, you're better off being a post-structuralist.
posted by holgate at 7:57 PM on April 13, 2001
And I think there's more to gain from looking at pragmatics than semantics here, at least as far as the web's concerned. Remember those horrendous arguments about how HTML "wasn't meant to be a layout/design language"? Well, it became one. And if we're focused overly on a kind of programmatic certainty of meaning, it's just going to be a reinvention of SGML.
I suppose an interest in the pragmatic web counts as the desire for a sort of "self-awareness": at least, that's why I'm more interested in fuzziness, Bayesian principles, retroactive delineation: the acknowledgement that on this vast, messy scale, you're better off being a post-structuralist.
posted by holgate at 7:57 PM on April 13, 2001
Perhaps. . . . .
When away from the computer, PDA etc., the computer will be able to post links and comments to MeFi according to and from what we've written in the past (i.e. style), issues the user has expressed interest in, what websites the user visits often and normally agrees with (from a rating scheme), averages out the usual level of logic over emotional expression from realtime posts and then ultimately posts an algorithmic extrapolation of what we would say.
All this of course hundreds of years from now.
posted by crasspastor at 11:15 PM on April 13, 2001
When away from the computer, PDA etc., the computer will be able to post links and comments to MeFi according to and from what we've written in the past (i.e. style), issues the user has expressed interest in, what websites the user visits often and normally agrees with (from a rating scheme), averages out the usual level of logic over emotional expression from realtime posts and then ultimately posts an algorithmic extrapolation of what we would say.
All this of course hundreds of years from now.
posted by crasspastor at 11:15 PM on April 13, 2001
By the way, I don't know what I'm talking about.
posted by crasspastor at 11:21 PM on April 13, 2001
posted by crasspastor at 11:21 PM on April 13, 2001
« Older Brando ill. | Mad Cow. Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
<fetish style="perversion:ick; graphic-nature:explicit">Postroad Porn Emporium</fetish>
Actually, I just wanted to say thanks for bringing this up. This article fills a small gap in a massive research paper who's deadline is rapidly approaching.
posted by BoyWithFez at 3:19 PM on April 13, 2001