UNCERTAINTY (Measure of)
Charles François (2004). UNCERTAINTY (Measure of), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2(2): 3672.
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3672 ▶ |
| Object type | Methodology or model |
- “The average number of binary decisions a decision maker has to make in order to select one out of a set of actually exclusive alternatives” (K. KRIPPENDORFF, 1986, p.77).
This number is the logarithm of the number of possible alternatives.
According to G. PASK: “Given a well-defined set of elements, it is possible to measure the amount of uncertainty with reference to this set. The reference frame provides a set of states, hence a measure of uncertainty is possible and is called the variety of the set. … Information and uncertainty, if expressed in an additive form as logarithmic measures, are very simply related indeed:
Uncertainty = — Information“ (1961, p.26).
This is, of course, the quantitative aspect of uncertainty, based on the hypothese of a consensus on their data among the different observers. PASK himself has been quite concerned by this consensus problem.