Trust and Control: A Dialectic Link

The relationship between trust and control is quite relevant both for the very notion of trust and for modelling and implementing trust-control relations with autonomous systems; but it is not trivial at all. On the one side, it is true that where/when there is control there is no trust, and vice versa. However, this refers to a restricted notion of trust: i.e., "trust in y", which is just a part, a component of the global trust needed for relying on the action of another agent. We claimed that control is antagonistic of this strict form of trust; but also that it completes and complements it for arriving to a global trust. In other words, putting control and guaranties is trust-building; it produces a sufficient trust, when trust in y's autonomous willingness and competence would not be enough. We also argue that control requires new forms of trust: trust in the control itself or in the controller, trust in y as for being monitored and controlled; trust in possible authorities; etc. Finally, we show that paradoxically control could not be antagonistic of strict trust in y, but it can even create, increase it by making y more willing or more effective. In conclusion, depending on the circumstances, control makes y more reliable or less reliable; control can either decrease or increase trust. We also analyse two kinds of control, characterised by two different functions: 'pushing or influencing control' aimed at preventing violations or mistakes, Vs 'safety, correction or adjustment control' aimed at preventing failure or damages after a violation or a mistake. A good theory of trust cannot be complete without a theory of control. * This research has been supported by the IST Programme ALFEBIITE (A Logical Framework for Ethical Behaviour between Infohabitants in the Information Trading Economy of the Universal Information Ecosystem): contract number IST-1999-10298.