Aristotle is out and Buddha is in; the law of the excluded middle
(either A or not-A) is repealed, and A and not-A together replaces
it. No more black and white, right and wrong, true or false. In
their place come shades of gray, more or less, maybe so, maybe not.
Why? Because the new world of fuzzy logic more closely mirrors
reality, has a rigor all its own, and is paying off in the
marketplace. Kosko (Electrical Engineering/USC) has been called the
"St. Paul" of fuzziness, and for good reason: Not only has he
contributed major theories and proofs in the development of fuzzy
logic, but he's also been a major proselytizer and gadfly,
organizing conferences and frequently going on the road (which
usually leads to Japan). He's also young...which may account for
the passion and posturing that color the text. Indeed, until Kosko
gets down to chapter and verse on what FL is and how it works,
reader will be put off by the constant put-down of Western logic
and philosophy and opposing schools of computer science. But when
Kosko is good, he's very, very good. One comes away from his text
with a real understanding of the concepts of fuzzy sets, rules, and
systems, and of how they're applied to make "smart" machines,
devices, trains, and planes. He's also good in extending these
ideas to neural nets in hypothesizing how brains change, learn, get
smart. But toward the end, he plunges big time into metaphysical
questions about life, death, cosmology, God (seen as the
math-maker). Curious about the future, Kosko says that he'll opt
for freezing at death. Still, for all the serf-indulgence, probably
the best primer around for learning what FL is all about, certainly
cuts above Daniel McNeill and Paul Freiberger's Fuzzy Logic (p.
45). (Kirkus Reviews)
For more than 2000 years, Western science has been based on absolutes. Things are black or white, alive or dead, all or nothing. As human beings we know the world is not really like this, that degrees exist between the extremes. But until now science has been unable to accommodate these uncertainties. Fuzzy logic is a scientific revolution that has been waiting to happen for decades – and its central tenets will dramatically change the relationship human beings have with the world. The question is to what degree.
In this absorbing, iconoclastic account of the head-spinning possibilities for fuzzy technology, Bart Kosko, fuzzy logic's most famous and combative apostle, urges us to abandon the debilitating binary world and turn to the East, for the future will be 'fuzzy'.
‘One day I learned that science was not true. I do not recall the day but I recall the moment. The God of the twentieth century was no longer God.’
"An exciting alternative form of logic"
TIM CRANE, 'Sunday Telegraph'
"'Fuzzy Thinking' is about… a radically different way of structuring our thoughts and experience … that transforms our perception of reality."
DANAH ZOHAR, 'Independent on Sunday'
"'Fuzzy Logic' works… It will become a significant technological force"
MICHAEL WHITE, 'The Times'
"Bart Kosko is an extraordinary and polymathic combination of talents"
PROFESSOR MARVIN MINSKY, 'MIT'
"Bart Kosko is the quintessential scientific cyberpunk – a hip, street-smart prophet of life in the Information Age"
LOS ANGELES TIMES
"Fuzzy Logic is the cocaine of science"
PROFESSOR WILLIAM KAHAN, 'UC Berkeley'
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