An unwritten rule about higher level ontologies is
that they reflect our knowledge today, not tomorrow. As knowledge evolves, the
upper level ontologies, especially, must also evolve. The example of the concept
"protein" is very apropos here. We can view it from functional,
structural, integrative angles, and I am sure there are a bunch more. Then think
about how our "concept" of a protein in each of those views has evolved over the
last 10 years, 20 years, 75 years. The problem is evident.
At whatever level an ontology is developed, someone
smarter or with more insight or standing on the shoulder of giants will use that
onotlogy as a building block for a new and better higher level view of nature.
We have not reached the end of science yet.
In my days of leading similar standards
developments, some of the best progress we made was when we banned discussions
of (1) higher-level ontologies (though we called them something else back in
those old days) and (2) acronyms.
For those of you who have requested more references
on my previous e-mail about experiment description, it will have to wait a few
more days. Unfortunately bioinformatics have not solved my kidney stone issues,
which severely limit my ability to pull the requested information
together.
John
Dr. John Rumble
Technical Director Information International Associates Oak Ridge TN www.infointl.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] 301 963 7903 (Home Office) 301 502 5729 (Cell) 865 298 1251 (Oak Ridge Office) |
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