PRECISE  DECISION
 

So many times I have been asked to take a precise decision... and couldn’t make it. Then I was accused of not been able to accomplish a task, or simplify a situation which required a strong will, self control and emotional stress, that I did not want to make clear things, and that I was profiting of the situation.
These answers and accusations are generated by an inoculated psychological protocol that though the media has contaminated mental procedures and the way we are going to try to find a solution to problems. 

 Matters of the heart, the truth, and new paths to follow, are typical situations in which one would be expected to answer with a yes/no dualistic variable, and contracts of any kind, considered from a nexus point of view, are only procedures made to tie two entities, a weak one and a strong one, to a common path, intent or project. Mutation is a natural law, although we tend to forget that things, change. The problems is that changes happen to be in action all the time. Time changes us though experience, concepts and truths are relative to their time, space, use, misuse. A forced and functional application of fixed points, naturally becomes a contractual chain, that will eventually bring us to conflicting realities.

This happens because our culture, ( but I’d rather say, economical thinking )  is making a bad use of, power, authority and deprivation of liberty, to exploit any possible situation and oblige reality.

The use of an easy and over simplified method to confront oneself with the patterns of life, is the best way to forget how the laws of harmony work.  Whilst Nature teaches, culture subverts. When the order is not anymore the natural one, then a New order will try to force things to interact in a different way. This difference, that only takes care of quantity, gives a precise picture of the quality of money, and of its saying “novo ordo seculorum”.

Nature is Harmonic, Culture is Egoic. We must never forget that our limited vision is not deep enough to understand karmic nexus generated by interactions of such a deep level and distance that we may not even think or percept two pixels of the same picture as being part of the same image. A limited vision does not allow us to understand the link there exist between things. Progressive linearity, is not the only way in which things may change, there are at least another 24 dimensions that I have calculated and studied, that could tell us much more, and give us greater opportunity to understand how wonderful is creation, and how we should interact with it in harmony.

A precise decision, is probably the first mistake we introduced in our diet, right from the start.  Now we shall take a look at some of the concepts I have introduced here:

Definition of DECISION

1

a : the act or process of deciding

b : a determination arrived at after consideration : conclusion <make a decision>

2

: a report of a conclusion <a 5-page decision>

3

: promptness and firmness in deciding : determination <acting with decision>

4

a : win; specifically : a victory in boxing decided on points <a unanimous decision>

b : a win or loss officially credited to a pitcher in baseball <has five wins in eight decisions>

— de·ci·sion·al adjective

Examples of DECISION:  She announced her decision to go to medical school. Have you made a decision?  He based his decision on facts, not emotions. She made a conscious decision to leave the painting unfinished. We need someone who will act with decision even under pressure.

Origin of DECISION

Middle English decisioun, from Middle French, from Latin decision-, decisio, from decidere to decideFirst Known Use: 15th century

Related to DECISION

Synonyms: award, call, conclusion, deliverance, determination, diagnosis, judgment (or judgement), opinion, resolution, verdict.

Antonyms: hesitation, indecision, indecisiveness, irresoluteness, irresolution, vacillation

Sound root CISION

abscission, concision, excision, incision.

And here a little help from Wikipedia:

Decision making:  

Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes (cognitive process) resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.

Human performance in decision terms has been the subject of active research from several perspectives. From a psychological perspective, it is necessary to examine individual decisions in the context of a set of needs, preferences an individual has and values they seek. From a cognitive perspective, the decision making process must be regarded as a continuous process integrated in the interaction with the environment. From a normative perspective, the analysis of individual decisions is concerned with the logic of decision making and rationality and the invariant choice it leads to.

Yet, at another level, it might be regarded as a problem solving activity which is terminated when a satisfactory solution is reached. Therefore, decision making is a reasoning or emotional process which can be rational or irrational, can be based on explicit assumptions or tacit assumptions.

One must keep in mind that most decisions are made unconsciously. Jim Nightingale, Author of Think Smart-Act Smart, states that "we simply decide without thinking much about the decision process." In a controlled environment, such as a classroom, instructors encourage students to weigh pros and cons before making a decision. However in the real world, most of our decisions are made unconsciously in our mind because frankly, it would take too much time to sit down and list the pros and cons of each decision we must make on a daily basis.  ( frankly, as the solutions to everyday life problems are usually simple, once we have stressed out the problem, and considered the amount of variables that participate into the equation, it’s quite easy to find solutions in a short time.  Special situations would require some attention in any way, and awareness is not related to sitting or standing, but to the algorithm we are going to use to solve ( melt ) the problem.  We can clearly see here how the writer of the article made the simplest mistake of all, introducing dualistic pros and cons, which will inevitably produce conflicting effects later on, and karmic chains. The basis is not daily, as the rhythm of consciousness should be the one of your footsteps ).
Alchemy teaches us that through the use of the operation called Solve, then we shall find out the ingredients, which were hiding inside it. Essential oils, through evaporation, can be detected by our nose. A Spectrograph, would tell us much more than what our eyes see, through the simple use of a prism and the understanding of rainbows and atoms related to colors. Doppler effect, and another couple of thousand  algorithms concerning mutation, transmutation and transformation procedures, could tell us much more about reality than our senses could. Here the problem does not come from perception itself, but from the misunderstanding  of information that we have been allowed to observe, and that we are not considering in an appropriate way. Emotional and psychological and cultural limits, rarely help the searcher into his quest.          

Logical decision making is an important part of all science-based professions, where specialists apply their knowledge in a given area to making informed decisions. For example, medical decision making often involves making a diagnosis and selecting an appropriate treatment. Some research using naturalistic methods shows, however, that in situations with higher time pressure, higher stakes, or increased ambiguities, experts use intuitive decision making rather than structured approaches, following a recognition primed decision approach to fit a set of indicators into the expert's experience and immediately arrive at a satisfactory course of action without weighing alternatives. Recent robust decision efforts have formally integrated uncertainty into the decision making process. However, Decision Analysis, recognized and included uncertainties with a structured and rationally justifiable method of decision making since its conception in 1964.

A major part of decision making involves the analysis of a finite set of alternatives described in terms of some evaluative criteria. These criteria may be benefit or cost in nature. Then the problem might be to rank these alternatives in terms of how attractive they are to the decision maker(s) when all the criteria are considered simultaneously. Another goal might be to just find the best alternative or to determine the relative total priority of each alternative (for instance, if alternatives represent projects competing for funds) when all the criteria are considered simultaneously. Solving such problems is the focus of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) also known as multi-criteria decision making (MCDM). This area of decision making, although it is very old and has attracted the interest of many researchers and practitioners, is still highly debated as there are many MCDA / MCDM methods which may yield very different results when they are applied on exactly the same data.[3] This leads to the formulation of a decision making paradox.

Problem Analysis vs Decision Making

It is important to differentiate between problem analysis and decision making. The concepts are completely separate from one another. Problem analysis must be done first, then the information gathered in that process may be used towards decision making.

Problem Analysis

• Analyze performance, what should the results be against what they actually are

• Problems are merely deviations from performance standards

• Problem must be precisely identified and described

• Problems are caused by some change from a distinctive feature

• Something can always be used to distinguish between what has and hasn't been effected by a cause

• Causes to problems can be deducted from relevant changes found in analyzing the problem

• Most likely cause to a problem is the one that exactly explains all the facts

Decision Making

• Objectives must first be established

• Objectives must be classified and placed in order of importance

• Alternative actions must be developed

• The alternative must be evaluated against all the objectives

• The alternative that is able to achieve all the objectives is the tentative decision

• The tentative decision is evaluated for more possible consequences

• The decisive actions are taken, and additional actions are taken to prevent any adverse consequences from becoming problems and starting both systems (problem analysis and decision making) all over again

• There are steps that are generally followed that result in a decision model that can be used to determine an optimal production plan.

Everyday techniques

Some of the decision making techniques people use in everyday life include:

Pros and Cons: Listing the advantages and disadvantages of each option, popularized by Plato and Benjamin Franklin

Simple Prioritization: Choosing the alternative with the highest probability-weighted utility for each alternative.

Satisficing: using the first acceptable option found.

Acquiesce to a person in authority or an "expert", just following orders

Flipism: Flipping a coin, cutting a deck of playing cards, and other random or coincidence methods

Prayer, tarot cards, astrology, augurs, revelation, or other forms of divination

Taking the most opposite action compared to the advice of mistrusted authorities (parents, police officers, partners ...)

Decision-Making Stages

Developed by B. Aubrey Fisher, there are four stages that should be involved in all group decision making. These stages, or sometimes called phases, are important for the decision-making process to begin. Orientation stage- This phase is where members meet for the first time and start to get to know each other. Conflict stage- Once group members become familiar with each other, disputes, little fights and arguments occur. Group members eventually work it out. Emergence stage- The group begins to clear up vague opinions by talking about them. Reinforcement stage- Members finally make a decision, while justifying themselves that it was the right decision.

Decision-Making Steps

Each step in the decision making process includes social, cognitive and cultural obstacles to successfully negotiating dilemmas. Becoming more aware of these obstacles allows one to better anticipate and overcome them. Pijanowski (2009, p.7) developed eight stages of decision making based on the work of James Rest:  Establishing community: creating and nurturing the relationships, norms, and procedures that will influence how problems are understood and communicated. This stage takes place prior to and during a moral dilemma

Perception: recognizing that a problem exists

Interpretation: identifying competing explanations for the problem, and evaluating the drivers behind those interpretations.

Judgment: sifting through various possible actions or responses and determining which is more justifiable

Motivation: examining the competing commitments which may distract from a more moral course of action and then prioritizing and committing to moral values over other personal, institutional or social values

Action: following through with action that supports the more justified decision. Integrity is supported by the ability to overcome distractions and obstacles, developing implementing skills, and ego strength

Reflection in action

When in an organization and faced with a difficult decision, there are several steps one can take to ensure the best possible solutions will be decided. These steps are put into seven effective ways to go about this decision making process (McMahon 2007).

The first step - Outline your goal and outcome. This will enable decision makers to see exactly what they are trying to accomplish and keep them on a specific path.

The second step - Gather data. This will help decision makers have actual evidence to help them come up with a solution.

The third step - Brainstorm to develop alternatives. Coming up with more than one solution ables you to see which one can actually work.

The fourth step - List pros and cons of each alternative. With the list of pros and cons, you can eliminate the solutions that have more cons than pros, making your decision easier.

The fifth step - Make the decision. Once you analyze each solution, you should pick the one that has many pros (or the pros that are most significant), and is a solution that everyone can agree with.

The sixth step - Immediately take action. Once the decision is picked, you should implement it right away.

The seventh step - Learn from, and reflect on the decision making. This step allows you to see what you did right and wrong when coming up, and putting the decision to use.

Cognitive and personal biases

Biases can creep into our decision making processes. Many different people have made a decision about the same question (e.g. "Should I have a doctor look at this troubling breast cancer symptom I've discovered?" "Why did I ignore the evidence that the project was going over budget?") and then craft potential cognitive interventions aimed at improving decision making outcomes.

Below is a list of some of the more commonly debated cognitive biases.

Selective search for evidence (a.k.a. Confirmation bias in psychology) (Scott Plous, 1993) – We tend to be willing to gather facts that support certain conclusions but disregard other facts that support different conclusions. Individuals who are highly defensive in this manner show significantly greater left prefrontal cortex activity as measured by EEG than do less defensive individuals.[6]

Premature termination of search for evidence – We tend to accept the first alternative that looks like it might work.

Inertia – Unwillingness to change thought patterns that we have used in the past in the face of new circumstances.

Selective perception – We actively screen-out information that we do not think is important. (See prejudice.) In one demonstration of this effect, discounting of arguments with which one disagrees (by judging them as untrue or irrelevant) was decreased by selective activation of right prefrontal cortex.

Wishful thinking or optimism bias – We tend to want to see things in a positive light and this can distort our perception and thinking.

Choice-supportive bias occurs when we distort our memories of chosen and rejected options to make the chosen options seem more attractive.

Recency – We tend to place more attention on more recent information and either ignore or forget more distant information. (See semantic priming.) The opposite effect in the first set of data or other information is termed Primacy effect (Plous, 1993).

Repetition bias – A willingness to believe what we have been told most often and by the greatest number of different sources.

Anchoring and adjustment – Decisions are unduly influenced by initial information that shapes our view of subsequent information.

Group think – Peer pressure to conform to the opinions held by the group.

Source credibility bias – We reject something if we have a bias against the person, organization, or group to which the person belongs: We are inclined to accept a statement by someone we like.

Incremental decision making and escalating commitment – We look at a decision as a small step in a process and this tends to perpetuate a series of similar decisions. This can be contrasted with zero-based decision making. (See slippery slope.)

Attribution asymmetry – We tend to attribute our success to our abilities and talents, but we attribute our failures to bad luck and external factors. We attribute other's success to good luck, and their failures to their mistakes.

Role fulfillment (Self Fulfilling Prophecy) – We conform to the decision making expectations that others have of someone in our position.

Underestimating uncertainty and the illusion of control – We tend to underestimate future uncertainty because we tend to believe we have more control over events than we really do. We believe we have control to minimize potential problems in our decisions.

Framing bias is best avoided by using numeracy with absolute measures of efficacy.[9]

Reference class forecasting was developed to eliminate or reduce cognitive biases in decision making.

Evaluation and analysis of past decisions is complementary to decision making; see also mental accounting.

Cognitive styles : Influence of Briggs Myers type

According to behavioralist Isabel Briggs Myers, a person's decision making process depends to a significant degree on their cognitive style. Myers developed a set of four bi-polar dimensions, called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The terminal points on these dimensions are: thinking and feeling; extroversion and introversion; judgment and perception; and sensing and intuition. She claimed that a person's decision making style correlates well with how they score on these four dimensions. For example, someone who scored near the thinking, extroversion, sensing, and judgment ends of the dimensions would tend to have a logical, analytical, objective, critical, and empirical decision making style. However, some psychologists say that the MBTI lacks reliability and validity and is poorly constructed.

Other studies suggest that these national or cross-cultural differences exist across entire societies. For example, Maris Martinsons has found that American, Japanese and Chinese business leaders each exhibit a distinctive national style of decision making

Optimizing vs. satisficing

Herbert Simon coined the phrase "bounded rationality" to express the idea that human decision-making is limited by available information, available time, and the information-processing ability of the mind. Simon also defined two cognitive styles: maximizers try to make an optimal decision, whereas satisficers simply try to find a solution that is "good enough". Maximizers tend to take longer making decisions due to the need to maximize performance across all variables and make tradeoffs carefully; they also tend to more often regret their decisions (perhaps because they are more able than satisficers to recognise that a decision turned out to be sub-optimal

Combinatoral vs. positional

Styles and methods of decision making were elaborated by the founder of Predispositioning Theory, Aron Katsenelinboigen. In his analysis on styles and methods Katsenelinboigen referred to the game of chess, saying that “chess does disclose various methods of operation, notably the creation of predisposition—methods which may be applicable to other, more complex systems.”

In his book Katsenelinboigen states that apart from the methods (reactive and selective) and sub-methods (randomization, predispositioning, programming), there are two major styles – positional and combinational. Both styles are utilized in the game of chess. According to Katsenelinboigen, the two styles reflect two basic approaches to the uncertainty: deterministic (combinational style) and indeterministic (positional style). Katsenelinboigen’s definition of the two styles are the following.     The embedded lists in this article may contain items that are not encyclopedic. Please help out by removing such elements and incorporating appropriate items into the main body of the article. (February 2008)

The combinational style is characterized by a very narrow, clearly defined, primarily material goal, anda program that links the initial position with the final outcome. In defining the combinational style in chess, Katsenelinboigen writes:

The combinational style features a clearly formulated limited objective, namely the capture of material (the main constituent element of a chess position). The objective is implemented via a well-defined and in some cases in a unique sequence of moves aimed at reaching the set goal. As a rule, this sequence leaves no options for the opponent. Finding a combinational objective allows the player to focus all his energies on efficient execution, that is, the player’s analysis may be limited to the pieces directly partaking in the combination. This approach is the crux of the combination and the combinational style of play.[13]

The positional style is distinguished by a positional goal and a formation of semi-complete linkages between the initial step and final outcome.

“Unlike the combinational player, the positional player is occupied, first and foremost, with the elaboration of the position that will allow him to develop in the unknown future. In playing the positional style, the player must evaluate relational and material parameters as independent variables. ( … ) The positional style gives the player the opportunity to develop a position until it becomes pregnant with a combination. However, the combination is not the final goal of the positional player—it helps him to achieve the desirable, keeping in mind a predisposition for the future development. The Pyrrhic victory is the best example of one’s inability to think positionally.”

The positional style serves to

 a) create a predisposition to the future development of the position;

 b) induce the environment in a certain way;

 c) absorb an unexpected outcome in one’s favor;

 d) avoid the negative aspects of unexpected outcomes.

 Katsenelinboigen writes:

 “As the game progressed and defense became more sophisticated the combinational style of play declined. . . . The positional style of chess does not eliminate the combinational one with its attempt to see the entire program of action in advance. The positional style merely prepares the transformation to a combination when the latter becomes feasible.”

Neuroscience perspective

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), orbitofrontal cortex (and the overlapping ventromedial prefrontal cortex) are brain regions involved in decision making processes. A recent neuroimaging study found distinctive patterns of neural activation in these regions depending on whether decisions were made on the basis of personal volition or following directions from someone else. Patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex have difficulty making advantageous decisions.

A recent study involving Rhesus monkeys found that neurons in the parietal cortex not only represent the formation of a decision but also signal the degree of certainty (or "confidence") associated with the decision. Another recent study  found that lesions to the ACC in the macaque resulted in impaired decision making in the long run of reinforcement guided tasks suggesting that the ACC may be involved in evaluating past reinforcement information and guiding future action.

Emotion appears to aid the decision making process: Decision making often occurs in the face of uncertainty about whether one's choices will lead to benefit or harm (see also Risk). The somatic-marker hypothesis is a neurobiological theory of how decisions are made in the face of uncertain outcome. This theory holds that such decisions are aided by emotions, in the form of bodily states, that are elicited during the deliberation of future consequences and that mark different options for behavior as being advantageous or disadvantageous. This process involves an interplay between neural systems that elicit emotional/bodily states and neural systems that map these emotional/bodily states.

Although it is unclear whether the studies generalize to all processing, there is evidence that volitional movements are initiated, not by the conscious decision making self, but by the subconscious. See the Neuroscience of free will.

Decision support system

A decision support system (DSS) is a computer-based information system that supports business or organizational decision-making activities. DSSs serve the management, operations, and planning levels of an organization and help to make decisions, which may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in advance. DSSs include knowledge-based systems. A properly designed DSS is an interactive software-based system intended to help decision makers compile useful information from a combination of raw data, documents, personal knowledge, or business models to identify and solve problems and make decisions.

Typical information that a decision support application might gather and present are:
inventories of information assets (including legacy and relational data sources, cubes, data warehouses, and data marts), comparative sales figures between one period and the next, projected revenue figures based on product sales assumptions.

History   -- ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND DECISION MAKING

 According to Keen (1978), the concept of decision support has evolved from two main areas of research: The theoretical studies of organizational decision making done at the Carnegie Institute of Technology during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the technical work on interactive computer systems, mainly carried out at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1960s. It is considered that the concept of DSS became an area of research of its own in the middle of the 1970s, before gaining in intensity during the 1980s. In the middle and late 1980s, executive information systems (EIS), group decision support systems (GDSS), and organizational decision support systems (ODSS) evolved from the single user and model-oriented DSS.

According to Sol (1987)[2] the definition and scope of DSS has been migrating over the years. In the 1970s DSS was described as "a computer based system to aid decision making". Late 1970s the DSS movement started focusing on "interactive computer-based systems which help decision-makers utilize data bases and models to solve ill-structured problems". In the 1980s DSS should provide systems "using suitable and available technology to improve effectiveness of managerial and professional activities", and end 1980s DSS faced a new challenge towards the design of intelligent workstations.

In 1987 Texas Instruments completed development of the Gate Assignment Display System (GADS) for United Airlines. This decision support system is credited with significantly reducing travel delays by aiding the management of ground operations at various airports, beginning with O'Hare International Airport in Chicago and Stapleton Airport in Denver Colorado.

Beginning in about 1990, data warehousing and on-line analytical processing (OLAP) began broadening the realm of DSS. As the turn of the millennium approached, new Web-based analytical applications were introduced.

The advent of better and better reporting technologies has seen DSS start to emerge as a critical component of management design. Examples of this can be seen in the intense amount of discussion of DSS in the education environment.

DSS also have a weak connection to the user interface paradigm of hypertext. Both the University of Vermont PROMIS system (for medical decision making) and the Carnegie Mellon ZOG/KMS system (for military and business decision making) were decision support systems which also were major breakthroughs in user interface research. Furthermore, although hypertext researchers have generally been concerned with information overload, certain researchers, notably Douglas Engelbart, have been focused on decision makers in particular.

Taxonomies

As with the definition, there is no universally-accepted taxonomy of DSS either. Different authors propose different classifications. Using the relationship with the user as the criterion, Haettenschwiler[5] differentiates passive, active, and cooperative DSS. A passive DSS is a system that aids the process of decision making, but that cannot bring out explicit decision suggestions or solutions. An active DSS can bring out such decision suggestions or solutions. A cooperative DSS allows the decision maker (or its advisor) to modify, complete, or refine the decision suggestions provided by the system, before sending them back to the system for validation. The system again improves, completes, and refines the suggestions of the decision maker and sends them back to him for validation. The whole process then starts again, until a consolidated solution is generated.

Another taxonomy for DSS has been created by Daniel Power. Using the mode of assistance as the criterion, Power differentiates communication-driven DSS, data-driven DSS, document-driven DSS, knowledge-driven DSS, and model-driven DSS.

A communication-driven DSS supports more than one person working on a shared task; examples include integrated tools like Microsoft's NetMeeting or Groove

A data-driven DSS or data-oriented DSS emphasizes access to and manipulation of a time series of internal company data and, sometimes, external data.

A document-driven DSS manages, retrieves, and manipulates unstructured information in a variety of electronic formats.

A knowledge-driven DSS provides specialized problem-solving expertise stored as facts, rules, procedures, or in similar structures.

A model-driven DSS emphasizes access to and manipulation of a statistical, financial, optimization, or simulation model. Model-driven DSS use data and parameters provided by users to assist decision makers in analyzing a situation; they are not necessarily data-intensive. Dicodess is an example of an open source model-driven DSS generator. Using scope as the criterion, Power differentiates enterprise-wide DSS and desktop DSS. An enterprise-wide DSS is linked to large data warehouses and serves many managers in the company. A desktop, single-user DSS is a small system that runs on an individual manager's PC.

Three fundamental components of a DSS architecture are:

the database (or knowledge base), the model (i.e., the decision context and user criteria), and the user interface. The users themselves are also important components of the architecture.

Development Frameworks

DSS systems are not entirely different from other systems and require a structured approach. Such a framework includes people, technology, and the development approach.

DSS technology levels (of hardware and software) may include:

The actual application that will be used by the user. This is the part of the application that allows the decision maker to make decisions in a particular problem area. The user can act upon that particular problem. Generator contains Hardware/software environment that allows people to easily develop specific DSS applications. This level makes use of case tools or systems such as Crystal, AIMMS, and iThink. Tools include lower level hardware/software. DSS generators including special languages, function libraries and linking modules.  An iterative developmental approach allows for the DSS to be changed and redesigned at various intervals. Once the system is designed, it will need to be tested and revised for the desired outcome.

Classification

There are several ways to classify DSS applications. Not every DSS fits neatly into one of the categories, but may be a mix of two or more architectures.

Holsapple and Whinston classify DSS into the following six frameworks: Text-oriented DSS, Database-oriented DSS, Spreadsheet-oriented DSS, Solver-oriented DSS, Rule-oriented DSS, and Compound DSS.

A compound DSS is the most popular classification for a DSS. It is a hybrid system that includes two or more of the five basic structures described by Holsapple and Whinston.

The support given by DSS can be separated into three distinct, interrelated categories[14]: Personal Support, Group Support, and Organizational Support.

DSS components may be classified as:

Inputs: Factors, numbers, and characteristics to analyze

User Knowledge and Expertise: Inputs requiring manual analysis by the user

Outputs: Transformed data from which DSS "decisions" are generated

Decisions: Results generated by the DSS based on user criteria

DSSs which perform selected cognitive decision-making functions and are based on artificial intelligence or intelligent agents technologies are called Intelligent Decision Support Systems (IDSS).

The nascent field of Decision engineering treats the decision itself as an engineered object, and applies engineering principles such as Design and Quality assurance to an explicit representation of the elements that make up a decision.

Applications

As mentioned above, there are theoretical possibilities of building such systems in any knowledge domain. One example is the clinical decision support system for medical diagnosis. Other examples include a bank loan officer verifying the credit of a loan applicant or an engineering firm that has bids on several projects and wants to know if they can be competitive with their costs. DSS is extensively used in business and management. Executive dashboard and other business performance software allow faster decision making, identification of negative trends, and better allocation of business resources.

A growing area of DSS application, concepts, principles, and techniques is in agricultural production, marketing for sustainable development. For example, the DSSAT4 package, developed through financial support of USAID during the 80's and 90's, has allowed rapid assessment of several agricultural production systems around the world to facilitate decision-making at the farm and policy levels. There are, however, many constraints to the successful adoption on DSS in agriculture.

DSS are also prevalent in forest management where the long planning time frame demands specific requirements. All aspects of Forest management, from log transportation, harvest scheduling to sustainability and ecosystem protection have been addressed by modern DSSs. A comprehensive list and discussion of all available systems in forest management is being compiled under the COST action Forsys

A specific example concerns the Canadian National Railway system, which tests its equipment on a regular basis using a decision support system. A problem faced by any railroad is worn-out or defective rails, which can result in hundreds of derailments per year. Under a DSS, CN managed to decrease the incidence of derailments at the same time other companies were experiencing an increase.

What are the Benefits?  Lets analyze this: someone wants to sell us again 11 commandments… lets see… 

Improves personal efficiency
Speed up the process of decision making
Increases organizational control
Encourages exploration and discovery on the part of the decision maker
Speeds up problem solving in an organization
Facilitates interpersonal communication
Promotes learning or training
Generates new evidence in support of a decision
Creates a competitive advantage over competition
Reveals new approaches to thinking about the problem space
Helps automate managerial processes

Personal efficiency= Efficiency based on results is the number of problems solved. Personal efficiency, is the value we give to the boss/authority that obtain solutions or solve problems. An improved personal efficiency is a positive way to express the concept of functional exploitation at its best; usually slavery.

Speed up process, is another accelerating protocol, that is forcing reality into disharmony and disequilibrium. Wrong rhythms produce illnesses. Speeded up decision making introduces mistakes as we accelerate, but calculated risks are a factors that do not disturb industry as they have a deal, and all deaths produced are considered normal.

Organizational control, simply means, that the chain is so strong that the feeling we have is that there exists no other way. Thick the case syndrome.

Exploration and discovery of faults maybe, to force them back to protocols. Structures of this kind eventually collapse as we know through experience, because of the weight of their disergy. Exploration, and discovery are concepts that the writers uses here totally out of context, just because they are in fashion, sound positive and are words in use to make someone appreciate something, like for adverts.

Again Speed and solve, speed and solve, this is Ahriman at work. To cook faster means to destroy the nutritive principles food contains. To melt faster, means that there is no will to respect natural rhythms and respect for bio systems and environment.  The faster industrial processes take place, and transformations are accelerated, the worst consequences environmentally speaking mankind has to pay.

 Facilitates interpersonal communication:  In decision making, to facilitate things, you need authority and power, and as you perfectly know, interpersonal communication, does not facilitate things, because reason, is something that requires understanding and the ability and capacity to change things and solve problems, as they come along.

Promotes learning or training : learning, is often, ( let’s say 99% of the time) based on repetition. Intuitive thinking and learning, if you try to look for it on your university books, is a topic that disturbs scientific thinking, and most sciences devote to it “ZERO PAGES”. This is not learning. We are talking about program induction and memorization or clone making, as you would program a pc with new software. Training, is the practical application of this software through your actions.

Generates new evidence in support of a decision. To produce, and not to generate, a new evidence, that is not new, because we were looking for an evidence, and an evidence can only be compared to something else to see if it coincides or differs from, it is equal or not, is a way to say, that we are trying to make a decision stronger, or trying to make others support it. This is not science, but a commercial or political attitude.

Creates a competitive advantage over competition: one against the other, competitive thinking. Very Harmonic indeed.

Reveals new approaches to thinking about the problem space: there is no new approach in this kind of thinking, it is pure egoistic thought. The “problem of space” bit of the sentence, is probably due to some other phrase that was cancelled from the commandments, and remained there in homeopathic traces. The problem of space, could be considered a problem only from the point of view of someone in need to limit  a certain amount of space or zone around someone else. As space is vital to life, and to confine someone or a way of thinking into a tiny cage or a narrow vision would produce sufferance or stupidity, I guess that the problem of mental aperture and awareness, is a great one for those who wish us to be silent as fish.

Helps automate managerial processes. Automated solutions are never good solutions. They take in consideration fixed values, and conditions, that may not occur at all, or be totally different from the ones the programmers thought of. As we have not tried yet to unite sciences, and understand creation from the wholistic point of view, our vision is consequentially unbalanced and limited to our functional needs. In one word, egoistic. Managerial processes, are needed to make someone do or behave as the boss says, psychologically or sociologically speaking. Protocols in use by institutions, derive directly from the idea that informatics is the science that will enable some systems to get in control of the whole thing, as they expressed in the idea of the “total control” multinational. The best  and rapid way to reach what “they” want, automatically, creating problems and then selling solutions to the problems created.
It looks like machine thinking, or artificial intelligence, has started to infect reason, and common sense.

Take care, commandments of this kind should simply be avoided.    Now, I will tell you something about the etymology of the word decision.
 

De cidere = cut away       Pre cisio = precision = cut, pre= before

To “decide precisely” means to cut twice. To “divide”, considering only the needs of the person that is using a knife, a sword, or a cutting instrument to obtain something to grasp. This is the devil’s job, and has nothing to do with the principles of harmony. Angels, on the other hand, that are messengers, come and go, and never use instruments to cut. This is why they never stop loving, ( they couldn’t , even if the Devil contaminated them with dualistic thought ). They do not own or use swords, but practice harmony and love, compassion and sharing.

The word “scissors” comes from this etymological root, “knife”, from kar, kart, to cut, “choice”, from the same root. Every sound that is close to this one, means to cut, divide, separate, ( cut in two halves ) and is a consequence of egoistic mistakes that did not take care of the law of harmony. Angels fell down to Earth because of this reason. Heart and love are the key to understanding. Truth itself is secondary to love, and no misuse of it should contaminate your actions. It is not possible to fight a war in the name of love and harmony, and Gods or demigods, sometimes, behave in such a way, that the distance there exists between the harmonic principle and the words men say they heard directly from them, show clearly the limit of their wisdom. Ego, unfortunately, is the limit of selfish thought, and as it is an invisible border that makes it impossible for the unwilling, to become something else, or even, more than what they are, stand still in the middle of what people think is their personality. To identify ourselves with it, means to loose control of ourselves.  

I keep repeating that we should take care of Oneness, Consciousness and Awareness, first of all.  It takes quite an effort to fight demons with “love glue” instead than using knives and swords, and to repair a broken vase, it takes a lot of patience, but nevertheless we should try just the same. Next time, let us try to practice the ”Union of the paths”, and if it is not possible, then practice what our heart teaches us to do, and help the weaker ones first.

May the force be with you. Whenever help is needed, move to repair, adjust and make things better. Tolerance is the key to understanding and comprehension. There is no need to run away or say farewell, whenever things go the opposite way we would like them to go. It is time to understand. If things change, even if we would like them to stay as they are indefinitely, it is not time to get angry, shout, yell and produce negative thoughts, but to understand internal and external changes.

Since life is so hard at moments, sometimes, we should mitigate our needs to hold on, pray, shout or fight against someone else's feelings, love, fears or incapacity, ignorance or stubbornness. To practice peaceful thinking and non conflicting vision, is a duty one should always remember to practice.  To find momentary enemies, is not to face the real problem to solve it, but to transpose it. Personal will, ideas and opinions, when love is strong and alive, mean nothing at all, and are no distance in between. Understanding is acting lovingly.

Truth, can be explained, but when things get too complicated, it is time to love, and not to forgive: because to love is to share, and to forgive, sometimes means to accept someone else's excuses, someone that has committed a fault. There is no fault, in reality, but only ignorance and misunderstanding.  You can cut knots off, but the best way to untie your hair is still by using a soft brush. Tantra is the art of sawing. Karma is the art of linear multi consequentiality.

Links are important as freedom is. Feelings are important, especially when they interfere, and teach us how to manage better life.
Use needles and cotton thread, glue and caresses, to heal wounds, this is the recipe, and find whichever method you can to make things work well. Every time someone hits you with a negative thought, move fast, convert it, do not feed it or give it more strength, and turn it into a positive one. Learn to dance and avoid, control brain waves, thoughts, and ideas that may be faulty, if based on concepts that have been neutralized or diverted. May silence teach you how to listen, and touch how to feel. Insight how to see, and love how to be lovable to others, yourself and any other creature you will meet.     

Amonakur