Catechism RDF
Catechism RDF (Resource Description Framework) is a far deeper and more complex machine readable version of the Catechism. It does not just express where words are but how those words are linked. What the semantic linking of each word in the Catechism is. This would require work on the English, French and Latin versions. Once complete, this text would form a basis for natural language processing tools to be able to process other theological texts far more accurately and usefully.
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Catechism RDF is a key component of the Catholic Semantic Web. The world
wide web consortium is leading the web into the Semantic web. "The
Semantic Web is an extension of the current Web in which information is
given well-defined meaning, enabling computers and people to work in
better cooperation. The Web will reach its full potential when it
becomes an environment where data can be shared and processed by
automated tools as well as by people." - Tim Berners-Lee and Eric Miller
The
automated tools mentioned by Tim and Eric have a level of AI, where
they can process human text. A quick look through the following links
will alert the reader to the potential and importance of such tools
Natural Language Processing at Wikipedia: Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of artificial intelligence and linguistics. It studies the problems of automated generation and understanding of natural human languages.
Natural language generation systems convert information from computer
databases into normal-sounding human language, and natural language
understanding systems convert samples of human language into more
formal representations that are easier for computer programs to
manipulate.
Natural Language Processing at Microsoft:
The goal of the Natural Language Processing (NLP) group is to design
and build software that will analyze, understand, and generate
languages that humans use naturally, so that eventually you will be
able to address your computer as though you were addressing another
person.
Natural Language Processing at American Association for Artificial Intelligence: The
value to our society of being able to communicate with computers in
everyday "natural" language cannot be overstated. Imagine asking your
computer "Does this candidate have a good record on the environment?"
or "When is the next televised National League baseball game?" Or being
able to tell your PC "Please format my homework the way my English
professor likes it." Commercial products can already do some of these
things, and AI scientists expect many more in the next decade. One goal
of AI work in natural language is to enable communication between
people and computers without resorting to memorization of complex
commands and procedures. Automatic translation---enabling scientists,
business people and just plain folks to interact easily with people
around the world---is another goal. Both are just part of the broad
field of AI and natural language, along with the cognitive science
aspect of using computers to study how humans understand language.
Is
it possible to talk theologically with a computer? Yes, but not yet.
The tools to perform such a function are already being developed as you
can see by following the above links. What is needed is for them to
know Catholic Theology. What is needed is Catechism RDF.
Catechism RDF
XML
( eXtensible Markup Language) describes what something is, eg Fr. John
is a Priest (<priest>Fr. John</priest>). RDF descibes the
relationship between words, eg Fr. John is the Parish priest of St.
John's. It would look something like:
<?xml version="1.0"?> <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:catholic="http://vatican.va/ns/catholic#">
<catholic:Person rdf:about="http://melbourne.catholic.org.au/People/JohnSmith/"> <catholic:fullName>John Smith</catholic:fullName> <catholic:religious>priest</catholic:religious> <catholic:parish>St. John's</catholic:parish> </catholic:Person>
</rdf:RDF>
It is clear that in this instance, we have a simple and clear meaning
for each of these words. When it comes to a document like the
catechism, there are far more complexities. Words
can have more than one meaning, eg 'The invalid had an invalid ticket'.
Words translated from one language will have different meanings in
another, eg the Greek word 'anouthen' (Jn 3:3) normally translated
'again', also can mean 'from above'. So there is a loss of meaning when
translated from one translation to another. Then there is the decision
of which meaning is intended in a particular circumstance. St. John may
have intended both, thus different translations focus on different
meanings. These are just some of the issues with converting a text into
a computer readable format. The Catholic Catechism is in three
important languages, French (which was the draft text), Latin (which is
an official text) and English which is the text used in the English
speaking world. Catechism RDF will need to take into account the matrix
of meanings as well as the different sentence structures. STEPS NEEDED The
standards provided by w3c.org for RDF and OWL provide a starting point.
Ultimately the Catechism RDF will be expressed in that format. A
common markup of the Catechism using a particular tag set will need to
be completed on each language version. This is a project in an off
itself. Each markup up text can then be expressed in a RDF and then OWL.
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