Path: news.easynews.com!core-easynews!newsfeed1.easynews.com!easynews.com!easynews!cyclone1.gnilink.net!wn14feed!wn13feed!wn12feed!worldnet.att.net!204.127.198.203!attbi_feed3!attbi_feed4!attbi.com!sccrnsc01.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Marshall Spight" Newsgroups: comp.databases.theory References: <17ce58cf.0304240518.34ebfe22@posting.google.com> <4b45d3ad.0305021332.436c1d36@posting.google.com> <4b45d3ad.0305021832.111fbebd@posting.google.com> <3EB34CD7.8010502@atbusiness.com> <4b45d3ad.0305030905.2e8c66f5@posting.google.com> <4b45d3ad.0305041522.1cc70a75@posting.google.com> <4b45d3ad.0305050809.5522824b@posting.google.com> <4b45d3ad.0305061316.10a935@posting.google.com> Subject: Re: Do Data Models Need to built on a Mathematical Concept? Lines: 31 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: 12.236.48.146 X-Complaints-To: abuse@attbi.com X-Trace: sccrnsc01 1052320202 12.236.48.146 (Wed, 07 May 2003 15:10:02 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 15:10:02 GMT Organization: AT&T Broadband Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 15:10:02 GMT Xref: core-easynews comp.databases.theory:26243 X-Received-Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 08:09:32 MST (news.easynews.com) "Neo" wrote in message news:4b45d3ad.0305061316.10a935@posting.google.com... > > > > > Suppose I want to be able to relate any two things. > > > > > > > > Well, I just don't see this happening. > > > > When do you *ever* need to be able to do that? > > > > > > Nearly all humans, in the past, now, and in the future do this > > > practically every single day of their life: related things, any two > > > things in various types of relations. > > > > We were discussing software, though, and not our image of our own mind. > > You don't see the parallel between a db representing things and a > brain representing things? I see the metaphor, yes. But it's just a metaphor; it's not math. We can think about how we think using metaphor, but we can't describe it mathematically, except in terms that are very limited compared to the actual complexity of the mind. Also, it's problematic to speculate on "how the brain represents things." Unless you are conducting some very sophisticated cognitive experiments, you don't have any valid data about the brain represents things. It's definitely not sufficient just to try to understand how you think by thinking about thinking, or just to observe or speculate. Marshall