Fuzzy logic /

Computer journalists McNeill and Freiberger mix philosophy and science, academic rivalry and international economic competition, the architecture of the mind and the technology of expert systems in this fascinating tale of the birth, development, and application of fuzzy logic. In 1964, UC-Berkeley electrical engineering professor Lotfi Zadeh challenged bedrock formulations of Western civilization (Aristotle's laws of contradiction and the excluded middle) by arguing that the classes and categories we use to understand the world are vague (not crisp) and that individuals participate in these categories to varying degrees. Some U.S. scientists pursued and extended Zadeh's theory of fuzzy sets; most, however, rejected fuzzy logic for two decades, feeling it destroyed the scientific method itself or substituted fuzziness for the precision of objective or subjective Bayesian probability theory. Meanwhile, scientists and engineers from Japan and, more recently, Europe were quick to recognize the value of fuzzy logic, using it in VCRs, robots, and automobiles. McNeill and Freiberger's book offers readers an accessible introduction to a theory that appears to give scientists a more sophisticated grasp of complexity and of the brain's functioning. (Reviewed Feb 15, 1993)0671738437Mary Carroll

General readers who are curious about how a new paradigm is created in basic science will find much of interest in this tight, sharp journalistic treatment of the development of ``fuzzy'' logic--that is, the mathematics of complexity, which in its more practical applications enables the design of machines that can perform a variety of tasks without detailed human instructions. The authors, both computer writers, chronicle the discipline's beginnings in the early 1960s and the academic battles over its worth that delayed its use in American applied science for years (the Japanese picked it up more quickly), showing how the combined inertia of 20th-century business and science resisted such a major shift in thinking. The mathematicians who created fuzzy logic (and may well regret the playful name they gave it) take center stage here, but the authors' journalistic skills enable them to vividly report on the insular world of high-level research, making the heated debates over fuzzy logic that much more interesting. McNeill/Newbridge Book Club special selection. ( Feb. ) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

``Fuzzy logic'' is a mathematical model of artificial intelligence that simulates human thinking by quantifying subjective concepts and reducing an infinite spectrum of numbers into a few categories. Initially scorned by American firms, it has been embraced commercially by Japanese companies for more than five years in the manufacture of innovative ``smart'' products such as camcorders, washing machines, air conditioners, and subway systems. The authors rebuke U.S. manufacturers for being shortsighted in rejecting this technology while Japanese corporations are now positioned to earn billions selling smart appliances to American consumers. While a few U.S. companies have recently begun to apply fuzzy logic, the gap with Japan remains wide, and narrowing it will be a considerable challenge. This is a good complement to Charles Ferguson's Computer Wars ( LJ 1/92), which discusses the hardware challenges that lie ahead for American companies. Both would be of interest to public and academic libraries.-- Joe Acccardi, Northeastern Illinois Univ. Lib., Chicago (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The concept of fuzzy logic has been surfacing as the wave of the future on the business pages and in articles on Japan. Fuzzy designs, science/computer-writers McNeill and Freiberger tell us, are generating self-parking cars, intelligent TVs and VCRs, and self-adjusting vacuum cleaners; eventually, they will enable computers really to read, listen, and talk back. That's the bright side. The dark side is the view of many academics and entrepreneurs--whose careers and companies are based on ``crisp'' logic--that statement A and its denial, not-A, cannot both be true: ``A sheep cannot be both white and non-white.'' In fuzzy logic, though, sheep can be both or neither. It's a matter of degree along a continuum. Once you start thinking this way, it's clear that language itself is fuzzy, full of gray areas of ``more or less.'' This idea has given rise to a theory of sets and subsets with varying degrees of membership--which in turn has yielded a theory and proofs that have enabled innovators to devise circuits or collections of if-then statements that can be programmed into chips to make decisions in controlling a variety of processes, from purifying water to diagnosing disease. The authors enthuse and argue about fuzzy logic, providing a history of movers and shakers like Lotfi Zadeh and Bart Kosko. To their credit, they also present the loyal opposition. The big issue is that, while the ideas originated in America, Japan has lapped them up, not only to make supertrains run superbly but to do all of the tricks above and more to come. Will the US catch on? Maybe, the authors suggest, but we'll still be playing catch up. Part of the problem is the paucity of books on the subject. This one, while fuzzy in details, at least serves to introduce readers to the concepts and a dazzling cast of characters. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.