A step toward a universal theory of failure handling

We explore, in this paper, some of the fundamental requirements needed for a Universal Theory of Failure Handling. We shall show that dealing with failure touches on our reasoning, predictive, evaluative and judgmental capabilities and thus it requires the ability to reason with incomplete and uncertain temporal information. It also requires reasoning with events before they even happen and about the effect of actions for as long as these are relevant, even if the available time does not permit. There may also be a need for reasoning about the reasoning process itself. We shall discuss the notion of failure with respect to decision-making and knowledge. We give a very brief presentation of Dorner's logic of failure and research into artificial intelligence and its implication for handling failures. We shall propose means of computing the degrees of failure induced by humans and in physical systems. In addition, we shall initiate a discussion on reasoning with failures and put forward a proposal for an integrative and proactive approach to monitoring, diagnosis and learning from failures