Dear Andrzej,
Andrzej:
> The amount of percent is a measure of that fitting to particular sets:
> set A - persons who know passwords,
> set B - persons who doesn't know the passwords.
>
> Why he fit to this set better?
> I don't think that this is connected with some randomness.
>
> The uncertainty is in the definition of the sets A and B.
>
> In other word in the natural language there is not enough word to
> describe this situation precisely.
> The description will be precise when we apply percent of knowledge
> instead just "knowledge" or "no knowledge" (i.e. two sets).
Alex:
> If we consider our universe of passwords consisting of just
> two
> >passwords: A and B, then 0, 0.5 and 1 are the probabilities that John,
> >Michael, and Robert, respectively know a password randomly drawn from
> the
> >set {A,B} of the passwords (think of two pieces of paper put in a hat:
> one >with password A and the other - with password B).
> >
> > The question is whether this is what you had in mind.
Andrzej:
> However, we can also calculate the value of the integral by using
> probabilistic methods (Monte Carlo method)
> but that not mean that there
> is something random or uncertain in the integral.
>
> You apply the same trick to my example.
>
> The amount of knowledge about the passwords is completely crisp
> (under some assumption) but
> I agree (unfortunately :))
> that it is possible to create
> some probabilistic Monte Carlo like method in order
> to calculate that amount of knowledge.
Both of us are guilty of the same "trick" : we are casting the problem in
terms that are more appropriate for a specific formalism for representing
uncertainty. The moment you start talking about sets of people who know
passwords and who do not know passwords, you are making it easier for
the fuzzy set theory to be applicable. The moment you (or I) start casting
the problem in terms of repeated trials, probability theory becomes
appropriate.
Alex
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Alexander Dekhtyar (859) 257 1839 (phone)
Assistant Professor (859) 323 1971 (fax)
Department of Computer Science University of Kentucky
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cs.uky.edu/~dekhtyar
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