Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!uflorida!mephisto!gatech!artsnet!mgresham
From: mgresham@artsnet.UUCP (Mark Gresham)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: knowledge engineering
Message-ID: <736@artsnet.UUCP>
Date: 15 Mar 90 04:36:30 GMT
References: <12275@venera.isi.edu>
Reply-To: mgresham@artsnet.UUCP (Mark Gresham)
Organization: ARTSNET  Atlanta, GA  USA
Lines: 40

In article <12275@venera.isi.edu> smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu.UUCP (Stephen Smoliar) writes:
>This hypothesis is appealing because it implies that we may "engineer"
>knowledge, just as we "engineer" circuits.  It's simply a matter of developing
>our understanding of how to put things together.  However, IT IS STILL ONLY A
>HYPOTHESIS.  Certainly, the track record of expert systems offers no sound
>confirmation of that hypothesis.  Indeed, the ways in which the behavior of
>expert systems deviates from that of humans may ultimately detract from the
>hypothesis.  Nevertheless, we are going to be very reluctant to give that
>hypothesis up because we have a long intellectual tradition which allows
>us to reason about ASSEMBLING THINGS and inclines us to raise eyebrows at
>any mention of epiphenomena.
>
>Connectionism is definitely a step away from the knowledge level hypothesis,
>for precisely the reason Brad pointed out:  you cannot talk about the knowledge
>contained in a neural net the way you can talk about the contents of a
>knowledge base.  At the same time, Brad is also right in wanting to have
>a way to interact with any system about "what it knows."  However, I don't
>think any of us would like a dump of a knowledge base in our attempt to find
>out what even a simple expert system "knows."  In other words, we are going
>down a slippery slope of issues of "knowing about knowledge."  Yes, Virginia,
>we are talking about CONSCIOUSNESS now.

I wonder, Steve, if the difference between what an expert system "knows"
and its "knowledge base" is a parallel to the difference between
"music" and a "theory of music" -- this all being and intuitive
observation on my part.  More intuition: what a system (or a
person) comes to "know" can alter its "knowledge base" in the same
way that one's cumulative experience of "music" can alter one's "theory
of music."


Cheers,

--Mark

========================================
Mark Gresham  ARTSNET  Norcross, GA, USA
E-mail:       ...gatech!artsnet!mgresham
or:          artsnet!mgresham@gatech.edu
========================================