Alan Ruttenberg <alanruttenb...@gmail.com> writes: >> As you know, we and others have demonstrated that alternative >> representations and reformulation of knowledge is desirable for certain >> kinds of scientific inquiry. > > Sorry, I'm unaware of such demonstration. Could you cite some references?
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0012258 A few examples of where multiple representations of the same knowledge have been used for good reasons: - multiple syntaxes for RDF - multiple syntaxes for OWL - two APIs for XML (DOM and SAX). - multiple computer languages which are reducable to lambda calculus - lambda calculus and a Turing Machine - continued use of Newtonian mechanics, although its an approximation of relativistic mechanics - multiple statisical techniques for expression of central tendancy - PDFs are still better for reading in the bath than HTML And so on. Any model is a compromise between accuracy, usability, convenience and so on. Sometimes having more than one compromise is a better solution than trying to shoe-horn everything into one bucket. This is a compromise too. Phil