Probabilistic reasoning in decision support systems: from computation to common sense
Marek J. Drużdżel · 1993
Most areas of engineering, science, and management use important tools based on probabilistic methods. The common thread of the entire spectrum of these tools is aiding in decision making under uncertainty: the choice of an interpretation of reality or the choice of a course of action. Although the importance of dealing with uncertainty in decision making is widely acknowledged, dissemination of probabilistic and decision-theoretic methods in Artificial Intelligence has been surprisingly slow. Opponents of probability theory have pointed out three major obstacles to applying it in computerized decision aids: (1) the counterintuitiveness of probabilistic inference, which makes it hard for system builders, experts, and users to translate knowledge into probabilistic form, create knowledge bases, and to interpret results; (2) the quantitative character of probability theory, which implies collection or assessment of vast quantities of numbers and, since these are not always readily available, raises questions about their quality; and (3) closely related to its quantitative character, the computational complexity of probabilistic inference. Its proponents, on the other hand, point