Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4
Knowledge Science
God knows what the Truth is
Anon
4.1
Introduction
Once we have defined and implemented a simple version of intelligence, the problem
now arises as to how this might be extended to be useful. One way is to use it in
conjunction with the expert knowledge of some professional. To capture this expertise
on a computer is particularly important when it comes to rare, expensive or vanishing
skills. Intelligence itself is of no real value unless it can be used in the world of human
affairs; it is this view that stimulated the idea of an 'Expert System'. An Expert System
is intended to capture the knowledge and skills of an expert in a computer program
so that such a program can either replace an expert or amplify a novice's knowledge
to the point of being equivalent to an expert. The questions then arise of how we
might harvest this knowledge and represent it in a computer, and how we can use
such knowledge.
Underlying the notion of an Expert System is the relationship between knowledge
and technology. Computer technology has tended to force our perception of knowl-
edge into specific categories (such as data and processes) that are often inappropriate
for modelling our understanding of the world. Our inability to resolve this tension
between knowledge and technology has been one of the major reasons that Expert
Systems are confined to a narrow band of application types. There is also no standard
Expert System, so the representation of expert knowledge can be widely different.
In order to cope with these differences, we must form the bases of a technological
science of knowledge. To understand formally the relationship between knowledge
and technology in this more general sense I have taken, as stated earlier, a pragmatic
stance; a stance that will highlight what is of
practical
value in our notion of knowl-
edge. This approach, as we have argued previously, relates directly to our actions
in the world and thus to our knowledge about the world. It is clear that knowledge
underlies our actions, since it is through our knowledge of a situation that we are
able to assess our response to it.
I present a view of knowledge in this chapter that shows how the tension between
knowledge as we perceive it and the limitations of technology might be resolved. I
will show that separate forms of knowledge must be identified and brought together
