Trust is not a means that can be chosen for particular ends, much less an ends/means structure capable of being optimized. Nor is trust a prognosis; its correctness cannot be measured by the occurrence of the predicted event and after some experiences have been reduced to probability values. These types of techniques, which are significant within the framework of decision-making models, have, as does trust, the function of reducing complexity. They are functional equivalents for trust, but not acts of trust in the true sense. As far as they extend, trust is unnecessary. They can replace trust, just as, conversely, the need for trust as a complementary way of absorbing uncertainty is a result of the limited effectiveness of those decision-making techniques.

DEFINE: Distinguishes genuine trust from functional equivalents like probability-based decision models, which reduce complexity but are not acts of trust.

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 307