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Subject: Re: [huml-comment] Request for a motion on PC-33 -Section 4.4.6-r ace
With the Human Genome now read, we can do much better than that eventually. As used, race is non-objective. Ciao, Rex At 6:51 PM +0200 12/5/02, Emmanuil Batsis (Manos) wrote: >Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote: > >>Race: >> A = Asian >>B = Black >>I = Indian >>W = White >>U = Unknown > > >What if my father was half Asian and half White, and my mother half >Black and half White; what would I be? >Given that this attribute is just of type xs:string and not an >enumeration (not that such a constraint would help) does not really >help. The information contained is to be unpredictable at best. > >Putting ethical arguments aside, this attribute does not serve much. >Now, if a complex type could trace races up my bloodline, that would >be something. Yup, that would be pretty objective... > >Manos > > > > > >> one sees a term followed by a codelist. What HumanML could provide >>would be a set of properties for the term, race, which could then be used >>to make a selection from that set given an instance. That set might >>include rules or might be a simple prototype such as slots with >>values for physical >>characteristics common to members of the set, historical origins, and so on. >>(In practice, this is hard to do, but I think that difficulty >>itself is valuable >>in focusing the community of interest's use of the term; that in fact, >>the real value of the term will decline.) >> Note: the same approach would apply to declaring prototypes for >>races of trolls, woodland, plains, mountain, or otherwise. So this >>is not special pleading, but precisely how HumanML is intended >>to be used. >> Thanks to Dennis for pointing this one out. It provides a good >>example of how HumanML can be applied to a term of contention >>such that typical users of the term can clarify precisely how >>this term is defined below the level of the initial codelist. >> len >> >> -----Original Message----- >> *From:* Rex Brooks [mailto:rexb@starbourne.com] >> >> I would prefer a stronger reason than that it simply can be shown >> to be non-objective despite current usages, and it can be derived >> from the existing PBS in a secondary schema, and it can be >> imported or declared from other interoperable resources. Those are >> sufficient, but not compelling reasons, whether reapplicable or not. >> >> > > >---------------------------------------------------------------- >To subscribe or unsubscribe from this elist use the subscription >manager: <http://lists.oasis-open.org/ob/adm.pl> -- Rex Brooks Starbourne Communications Design 1361-A Addison, Berkeley, CA 94702 *510-849-2309 http://www.starbourne.com * rexb@starbourne.com
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