Mr. Bain's article would be more worthwhile if he were to elaborate on what it means for a knowledge representation system to be "doomed". The relational model

Mr. Bain's article would be more worthwhile if he were to elaborate on what it means for a knowledge representation system to be "doomed". The relational model proposed by Codd[1] was formulated so that applications which adhere to it would continue to work and be free of inconsistencies when the underlying data is updated or reorganized. That may not sound like much but it's surprisingly useful when the data is important or valuable and needs to always be correct. This is also the whole point of all those irritating normal forms. The relational model has a lot of shortcomings but it's not likely to be replaced by anything that doesn't address these issues. That said, for some kinds of data it is definitely overkill. Religiously following the relational model for short lived stuff with little significance makes about as much sense as filling out your shopping lists in triplicate, storing permanent copies in a safe deposit box and requiring two signatures for every alteration the same way you might if you changing your will or a deed to your property. [1] - "Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks" , http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~zives/03f/cis550/codd.pdf http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~zives/03f/cis550/codd.pdf