michaelnielsen

Modularity and scalability

jwilbanks | April 9, 2009

Michael Nielsen gets it right, again. This is what I'm on about when I talk about ontologies and object-orientation of knowledge. In science, the code is the knowledge. Unlike computer programming, the code is locked up PDF and XML formats, and behind firewalls and copyrights (at least in code you could write your own if you knew what you wanted.). On top of that, ontologies are a royal pain in the ass. But it's worth it - if the pain is big enough. Standard ontologies and common names mean we at lest get a speck of modularity in database aggregation, for example. You can do some cool stuff…