Logic of Non-Monotonic Interactive Proofs

in Lecture Notes in Computer Science (2013), 7750

We propose a monotonic logic of internalised non-monotonic or instant interactive proofs (LiiP) and reconstruct an existing monotonic logic of internalised monotonic or persistent interactive proofs (LiP ... [more ▼]

We propose a monotonic logic of internalised non-monotonic or instant interactive proofs (LiiP) and reconstruct an existing monotonic logic of internalised monotonic or persistent interactive proofs (LiP) as a minimal conservative extension of LiiP. Instant interactive proofs effect a fragile epistemic impact in their intended communities of peer reviewers that consists in the impermanent induction of the knowledge of their proof goal by means of the knowledge of the proof with the interpreting reviewer: If my peer reviewer knew my proof then she would at least then know that its proof goal is true. Their impact is fragile and their induction of knowledge impermanent in the sense of being the case possibly only at the instant of learning the proof. This accounts for the important possibility of internalising proofs of statements whose truth value can vary, which, as opposed to invariant statements, cannot have persistent proofs. So instant interactive proofs effect a temporary transfer of certain propositional knowledge (knowable ephemeral facts) via the transmission of certain individual knowledge (knowable non-monotonic proofs) in distributed systems of multiple interacting agents. [less ▲]

Logic of Non-Monotonic Interactive Proofs (Formal Theory of Temporary Knowledge Transfer)

Report (2012)

Logic of Negation-Complete Interactive Proofs (Formal Theory of Epistemic Deciders)

Report (2012)

A Modular Multi-Modal Specification of Real-Timed, End-To-End Voter-Verifiable Voting Systems

in 2011 International Workshop on Requirements Engineering for Electronic Voting Systems (REVOTE) (2011)

We propose a modular multi-modal specification of real-timed, end-to-end voter-verifiable voting systems, i.e., a formal but intuitive specification of real-timed voting systems that are accountable (and ... [more ▼]

We propose a modular multi-modal specification of real-timed, end-to-end voter-verifiable voting systems, i.e., a formal but intuitive specification of real-timed voting systems that are accountable (and thus trustworthy) to their users. Our specification is expressed as a single but well-compounded formula in a logical language of temporal, epistemic, and provability modalities. The intuitiveness of the specification is the fruit of its modular and multi-modal form. This means that the specification can be appreciated compound-wise, as a logical conjunction of separate sub-requirements, each of which achieving the ideal of a formal transcription of a suitable natural-language formulation, thanks to powerful descriptive idioms in the form of our multiple modalities. The modular form reduces our proof of the satisfiability (consistency) and thus implementability of the specification to a proof by inspection, and induces the parallelisability of implementation-correctness verifications. The specification also pinpoints the implementation-specific part of particular voting systems, reuses a generic definition of accountability inducing trust in a formal sense, and, last but not least, counter-balances by its implementability some previous results about the contradictory conjunction of certain desirable property pairs of voting systems. So in some sense, ideal voting systems do exist. Our specific formalisation principles are agent correctness, i.e., the behavioural correctness of the voting-system-constituting agents, and data adequacy, i.e., the soundness and (relative) completeness of the voting data processed by the system. [less ▲]