Quantifying Subjectivity

Subjectivity is so common in business and environmental laws and regulations that it is taken for granted. But, most people find it frustrating trying to address it because the tools they learned to use to make business and permitting decisions are not suited to the task.

Environmental laws and regulations are filled with words called linguistic variables because they represent concepts that mean different things to different people, yet each meaning is correct. Examples of linguistic variables include "significant," "minimal," and "valuable."

Business decisions, such as evaluating resource properties for investment or development, are also based on subjective evaluations. Included in the decision criteria are factors of the degree of risk involved, estimates of future costs and prices for the values produced at each site, and the degree of suitability of each property with the company's strategic goals. All of these are subjective factors that do not have simple values.

We are experts in quantifying subjectivity using the robust mathematics of multivalue sets and logic. This foundation is used to build models that approximate the reasoning of subject experts. The models provide support for regulatory and business management decisions that cannot be provided by conventional numeric models.

When you have a situation that has so far defied a satisfactory solution using the traditional approaches and tools you have used, contact us to determine if an approximate reasoning model would have value for you.

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Quantifying Subjectivity