[Flora-users] CLIPS, Flora-2, Ontology, AI

[PhiHo H. <phi...@ro...>]

Hi,

> >
> > human::mammal.
> > whale::mammal.
> >
> > male::mamal.
> > female::mamal.
> >
> > Does Flora-2 support multi-inheritance?
> 
> Yes.
> 
> > How can one say, in Flora-2, that:
> 
> Just say it as you said.
> 
> >
> > man::human.
> > man::male.
> >
> >
> > he-whale::whale.
> > he-whale::male.
> > Then:
> >
> > ?X:man 	:- ?X:male, ?X:human, ?X.age > 18.
> > ?X:he-whale :- ?X:male, ?X:whale.
> 
> Yes.
> 
> > Or should it be:
> >
> > ?X:man 	:- ?X:(male, human), ?X.age > 18.
> > ?X:he-whale :- ?X:(male, whale).
> 
> Same thing.
> 
> 

That's great. Thanks for confirming it.

Is this multi-inheritance feature of Flora-2 documented somewhere or is it an
undocumented feature and to be used at her own risk ;-)

> > > Flora-2 is a rule-based language and its expressive power is quite
> > > different from description logics (they are incomparable).
> >
> > How would you compare Flora-2 to CLIPS/COOL(CLIPS Object Oriented
> Language):
> >
> > http://www.ghg.net/clips/WhatIsCLIPS.html
> >
> > "... The C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) is a programming
> > language used for the construction of rule and/or object based expert
> systems."
> 
> 
> CLIPS is a production rule system. It does not have logical semantics (if
> you include negation and such). It is quite a different programming
> paradigm than the LP paradigm on which Flora is based.
> 
> 

I wholeheartedly agree and think that Flora-2 is more powerful thanks to its
prolog nature of unification and backward chaining together with HiLog.

> > Can something like Monkey And Banana (mab.clp) be implemented in Flora-2?
> 
> I am sure it can. http://cs.hiram.edu/~walkerel/cs386/LogicReasoning.ppt
> shows it in Prolog, so obviously it can be done in FLORA-2
> 

Thanks for the link. 

Theoretically, can prolog backward chaining and RETE forward chaining co-exist.
Does it make sense for, say Flora-3, to have support for RETE network as well as
prolog inference?

> >
> > > But in most practical cases you can simulate DLs
> > > when it comes to ontology specification.
> > > 

CLIPS is marketed as an expert system tool and Flora-2 is sold as an ontology
technology?

Do you think that CLIPS is more visible to the mass than prolog based technology
like Flora-2?

BTW, AI was conceived as a failure, at least in the business sense, wasn't it.

According to webster.com, ontology means:

1 : a branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature and relations of being
2 : a particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of things that
have existence

Is there any connections between AI and Ontology?

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

PhiHo