Granular causality speculations

In many ways, causality deals with granular descriptions. This is true for commonsense reasoning as well as for mathematical and scientific theory. At a very fine-grained level, the physical world itself may be made up out of granules. Our commonsense perception of causality is often granular. Knowl...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mazlack, L.J.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Accidents
Applied sciences
Artificial intelligence
Automobiles
Computational intelligence
Computer science
control theory
systems
Exact sciences and technology
Fuzzy logic
Fuzzy reasoning
Grain size
Laboratories
Switches
Uncertainty
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Summary:In many ways, causality deals with granular descriptions. This is true for commonsense reasoning as well as for mathematical and scientific theory. At a very fine-grained level, the physical world itself may be made up out of granules. Our commonsense perception of causality is often granular. Knowledge of at least some causal effects is imprecise. In our commonsense world, it is unlikely that all possible factors can be known. Our commonsense understanding of the world deals with imprecision, uncertainty and imperfect knowledge. People recognize that a complex collection of elements causes a particular effect, even if the precise elements of the complex are unknown. They may not know what events are in the complex; or, what constraints and laws the complex is subject to. Sometimes, the details underlying an event can be known to a fine level of detail, sometimes not. The level of detail can reasonably be called the event's grain size. In general, commonsense reasoning is more successful in reasoning about a few large grain sized events than many fine-grained events. The central question is: to what extent can we usefully vary the causal grain size?.
DOI:10.1109/NAFIPS.2004.1337385