When two agents communicate they must have some significant body of shared understanding about the meaning of the symbols they use. Humans have attempted to codify some of those shared meanings in dictionaries. In the computer and information sciences we face the challenge of how to enable machines to share at least some of the catalog of the symbols humans use and what they mean. In dealing with machines one must rely on mathematics to state meaning rather than relying on the experience and int…
Read moreWhen two agents communicate they must have some significant body of shared understanding about the meaning of the symbols they use. Humans have attempted to codify some of those shared meanings in dictionaries. In the computer and information sciences we face the challenge of how to enable machines to share at least some of the catalog of the symbols humans use and what they mean. In dealing with machines one must rely on mathematics to state meaning rather than relying on the experience and intuitions of the communicating agents. Ontology (in information systems) is the field that attempts to create shared meanings of symbols.