Evolution Toward a New State of Multi-criteria Decision Making

Abstract

Almost all living things, organizations, and technology change with time. As a consequence, our value systems, belief systems, and perceptions change with time and situations, and our understanding, attitudes, and methods toward solving non-trivial MCDM decision problems evolve with time. For instance, mathematical programming or optimal control of single criterion has evolved into that of multiple criteria. A number of solution concepts and techniques have been generated and developed. Another example is by incorporating the discovery of neural science and psychology into system theory, habitual domains (HD), the stealth human software that determines our lives, has been developed. Habitual domains systematically describe the dynamic changes of optimization of our objectives, perceptions and behaviors. Because of stable HD, human decisions, and behaviors, to a large degree, are predicable. However, human beings still have a very large capability for innovation and revolution. As the science and technology has been exponentially exploded in the last decades, our MCDM, including its formulation, solution concepts, solution techniques and computation, will be changed or evolved rapidly in order to be effective in this rapid changing world. In this talk, forces and paths of MCDM evolution will be described, and some emerging concepts of MCDM will be introduced.

Plenary Address for the 15^th International Conference on Multi-criteria Decision Making

The author acknowledges Chin-I Chiang for helping to prepare this article, and support of National Science Council of Taiwan, Asia Pacific Foundation of National Chiao Tung University.