On the Classification of Uncertainty Techniques in Relation to the Application Needs

Abstract

Computerized information systems are subject to a variety of imperfections and uncertainty; either in the data themselves or in the query designed to access items of information from the system. Meanwhile, a great deal of research work is available on techniques for handling uncertainty. It is clear that these techniques can be exploited for the management of uncertainty in information systems. However, the plethora of available techniques poses a challenge to the designers of information systems as to which technique is best suited to the problem to be managed. This dilemma is familiar to the designers of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Many system builders have expressed a wish to see research results that would provide a comprehensible classification matrix showing the suitability of each uncertainty techniques to some abstract features of the problem needing uncertainty management. This chapter argues that such a classification is not possible given the present state of research in uncertainty and indeed it is not meaningful to attempt to produce a matrix of the type suggested.