People had trouble crunching numbers, so they invented computers – technology that uses binary logic and strings of zeros and ones to calculate.

On the other hand, people were, and still are, fairly good at adding up opinions, warnings, and probabilities in their heads, then "going with the gut". They survive by using soft information to compare the present to the past, then drawing conclusions about possible future consequences. And, they do this without the help of computers.

Even though these mental extrapolations are essential to survival, they are not without risk. Many things render judgement calls inconsistent, arbitrary, or even wrong – lack of experience, moods, the time of day, and cognitive biases. Currently, computers lack the algorithms that would allow them to help reduce these risks.

In this presentation, the Daams-Stewart algorithm is introduced. Using a new fuzzy implication operator, it captures the cognitive process of extrapolating from experience, and, at the same time, reduces the errors in judgement that creep into human reasoning. Disaster recovery – where rational decision-making is an imperative - is used to illustrate the algorithm. .

The result is computationally intelligent technology that uses soft-computing methods to reduce the risks inherent in the intuitive extrapolations that go on inside the heads of decision-makers.

Dr. Lorna Strobel Stewart, Ph.D.
Dr. Strobel Stewart is a mathematician, author, teacher and entrepreneur. She did her undergraduate work in pre-medicine at McMaster; her graduate work in mathematics at U of T; her masters in administration at Niagara University; her graduate work in sociology at the University of Houston, and; her doctoral studies at the University of California at Berkeley. She is the co-inventor of the Daams-Stewart algorithm
Currently, she is working in the field of computational intelligence with particular attention to the use of judgement in decision-making.

Alaleh Azad B. Eng.
Alaleh Azad is a computer hardware engineer and researcher. She began her studies in science and mathematics in Iran. Then, she completed her undergraduate work in Canada at Concordia University with additional studies at Ryerson University.
Currently, she is collaborating with Dr. Strobel Stewart on research in computational intelligence.