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From: mtanner@gmuvax2.gmu.edu (Michael C. Tanner)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Data Interpretation - Diagnosis expert Task
Message-ID: <2881@gmuvax2.gmu.edu>
Date: 12 Nov 90 22:18:11 GMT
References: <1990Nov6.184658.29097@asterix.drev.dnd.ca> <85816@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Reply-To: mtanner@gmuvax2.UUCP (Michael C. Tanner)
Distribution: comp
Organization: George Mason Univ. Fairfax, Va.
Lines: 43

This is mostly a response to <byland@cis.ohio-state.edu> and
<sticklen@cpswh.cps.msu.edu>.

I wish somebody would define data interpretation.

You normally have to interpret data in order to do diagnosis.  You may choose
to view the result of diagnosis as an interpretation of data.  But unless
there's some technical definition of data interpretation that I'm missing, I
don't think one is a subset of the other.

Both are really ways of "finding out what's true".  I don't think that's the
same as "inference to the best explanation" (IBE) (similar to abduction).  If
you have the prior assumption that there's something wrong, you might attempt
to find out what's true (i.e., what's wrong) by diagnosis, which you may
choose to view as a problem of inferring the best explanation.

So I disagree with Bylander when he says diagnosis is a kind of data
interpretation and data interpretation is abduction.  But I agree with
Sticklen (and I think Bylander too) that diagnosis carries the explicit
assumption that something is wrong and the diagnostic answer will say what's
wrong.

IBE, and data interpretation, and (especially) finding out what's true, are
too ill-specified to be of any direct use.  All problem solving is done with
some purpose, and that purpose introduces some pragmatic considerations.  I
don't think you can just interpret data.  You have to interpret it with some
use in mind for the result.  Diagnosis is a possible use, i.e., you might
interpret data in order to use it for diagnosis.  Diagnosis intoduces the
consideration that something is wrong and acceptable answers will specify
faults and perhaps explain how the faults produce the misbehavior that made
you aware of the problem.  And as Sticklen points out, the goal of treatment
or repair (a subgoal of which might be diagnosis) introduces the consideration
that the diagnostic answers will relate to possible treatments.

So my answer (modulo the real meaning of data interpretation) is:  diagnosis
is a kind of problem solving and data interpretation isn't.


--
Michael C. Tanner                         Assistant Professor
CS Dept                                   AI Center
George Mason Univ.                        Email: tanner@aic.gmu.edu
Fairfax, VA 22030                         Phone: (703) 764-6487