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

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