From: rrschulz@cris.com   
      
   Jorn Barger wrote:   
   > JXStern  wrote:   
   >   
   >> ...   
   >   
   >   
   > ...   
   >   
   > I have a hard time believing that it was-- for example, Cyc is   
   > supposed to eventually have expert knowledge of _everything_ but   
   > I've never seen any allusion to the question of whether it could   
   > _model/simulate_ everything. (Obviously it would have to be able   
   > to, and I think obviously its knowledge-structures aren't designed   
   > for that.)   
   >   
   > ...   
   >   
   > (Does Cyc have anything like this-- a capsule model of the basic   
   > sciences?  How remote is it from the challenge of running   
   > simulations of those processes?)   
      
   Jorn,   
      
   Cyc is, to a first aproximation, a first-order logic system. It goes   
   beyond this in some ways with non-monotonic logics and higher-order   
   constructs, but it is a reasoning system, not a simulation system.   
      
   Cyc does have micortheory sets that encode knowledge from the   
   mathmatical, physical and biological sciences. I don't know how   
   comprehensive they are, but as I understand it they're an active area   
   of ontological engineering at Cycorp these days. The work on biology   
   is driven in part by the interest in creating reasoning systems that   
   can detect activities related to attempts to perpetrate acts of   
   biological terrorism.   
      
   It is apparently the hope of its creators that Cyc's knowledge base   
   grow to be coextensive with all human knowledge. We'll see...   
      
   Randall Schulz   
      
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