From Mathematical Reasoning to Crises in Different Languages: The Application of Failure-Driven Reasoning to Ontologies and Data

Reasoning about failure has been a central pillar of DReaM Group research for a long time. But failure happens not just in maths but in all kinds of spheres. While failure can—and often does—occur during human communication, people are actually pretty good at identifying and correcting errors, and at communicating effectively even when they do not completely understand one another or have a different world view. But the ability to facilitate automated communication—for example, in peer-to-peer systems, or through automated data identification and integration—is difficult because misalignment and heterogeneity are common. In this chapter, I discuss my work over the years within the DReaM group, looking at different aspects of this problem.