Why don't probabilities come with error margins, or other means of describing uncertainty in their assessments?
If I evaluate a prior probability P(new glacial period starting within the next 100 years) to, say, 0.1, shouldn't I then also communicate how certain I feel about that judgement?
A scientist might make the same estimate but be more sure about it's accuracy than I.
In our everyday judgements we often use such package deals:
A: where's Jamie?
B: I think he went to the club house, but you know Jamie - he could be anywhere.
High P, high uncertainty
A: Where's Susie? Do you think she ran astray after that hefty argument?
B: no I'm certain she would *never* do that. She must have gone to a friends place.
High P, low uncertainty.
They do?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_error
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_interval
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credible_interval
I was thinking in the context of the bayesian theorem. Those articles that describe how evidence updates works, using bayes theorem, never seems to include confidence intervals. Maybe I have just looked the wrong places. I'll find out once I've gone through the links somervta gave me.