Cool input. Thank you. I believe I have tweaked my assertions: 1. The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" > <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html"> <dc:creator>http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79089957</dc:creator> </rdf:Description> </rdf:RDF> 2. Thomas Jefferson is a male person <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"> <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n7908995"> <foaf:Person foaf:gender="male" /> </rdf:Description> </rdf:RDF> Using no additional vocabularies (ontologies), I think my hypothetical Linked Data spider / robot ought to be able to assert the following: 3. The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, a male person <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"> <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html"> <dc:creator> <foaf:Person rdf:about="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79089957"> <foaf:gender>male</foaf:gender> </foaf:Person> </dc:creator> </rdf:Description> </rdf:RDF> The W3C Validator…validates Assertion #3, and returns the attached graph, which illustrates the logical combination of Assertion #1 and #2. This is hard. The Semantic Web (and RDF) attempt at codifying knowledge using a strict syntax, specifically a strict syntax of triples. It is very difficult for humans to articulate knowledge, let alone codifying it. How realistic is the idea of the Semantic Web? I wonder this not because I don’t think the technology can handle the problem. I say this because I think people can’t (or have great difficulty) succinctly articulating knowledge. Or maybe knowledge does not fit into triples? — Eric Morgan University of Notre Dame [cid:6A4E613F-CE41-4D35-BDFA-2E66EE7AF20A]
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