|
Fuzzy Logic is an eye-opening book
-- an exciting tour of a high-tech world where visionary
computer scientists are inventing the future, and a disturbing
lesson in shortsighted business practices.
Imagine tossing your laundry into a "fuzzy"
washing machine, pushing a button, and leaving the machine
to do the rest, from measuring out detergent to choosing
a wash temperature. Imagine a microwave oven that watches
over meals with more sensitivity than a human cook. Imagine
a subway system that stops and starts so smoothly that passengers
don't bother holding on to straps. Futuristic fantasy? No.
In Japan, this is reality -- and it's starting to explode
into our marketplace.
Lotfi Zadeh, a professor at the University
of California at Berkeley, invented fuzzy logic in 1964.
Conventional logic divides the world into yes and no, black
and white. Fuzzy logic deals in shades of gray. It can thus
make computers think like people.
But when Zadeh tried to sell his idea to
the American academic community and to American companies,
he met with ridicule and scorn. Only the Japanese saw the
logic of fuzzy logic, and soon such companies as Matsushita
and Sony will earn billions selling it back to us. And they
will have a head start on the dazzling future possibilities
of fuzzy logic:
- Software that predicts the stock market
based on the daily news
- Cars that drive themselves
- Sex robots with a humanlike repertoire
of behavior
- Computers that understand and respond
to normal human language
- Molecule-size soldiers of health that
roam the bloodstream, killing cancer cells and slowing
the aging process
Fuzzy Logic is the compelling tale
of this remarkable new technology and the fascinating people
who made it happen. It is also the story of what it took
for American business to catch on to fuzzy logic -- and
how it will soon affect the lives of every one of us.
Daniel McNeill has written numerous books
and articles on high-tech, and his work has also appeared
in fiction, travel, history, law, and education publications.
He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and lives with his
wife in Los Angeles, California.
Paul Freiberger has written about advanced
technology for more than a decade. He is coauthor of Fire
in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer,
and covered Silicon Valley for six years at the San
Francisco Examiner. He now works
at Interval Research Corp., which is pursuing the high-tech
breakthroughs of the 1990s and beyond. He lives in San Mateo,
California, with his wife and two-year-old son.
|
