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Title: Fuzzy Thinking : The New Science of Fuzzy Logic by Bart Kosko ISBN: 0-7868-8021-X Publisher: Hyperion Pub. Date: 01 June, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.74 (38 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Kudos to Kosko, GREAT book!!!!!!!
Comment: While going through an industrial engineering BS program, it seemed that many models and modeling techniques for various things left something to be desired. Fuzzy Thinking takes us out of the binary world, and into the fuzzy world, the way people think, and the way systems behave. This book is non-technical (easy to understand), intuitive, and provides a great introduction to Fuzzy logic, including anything from the philosophic origins of fuzzy thinking to existing and future applications of Fuzzy Logic. In was like reading one of Goldratt's books, (The Goal, It's Not Luck, Critical Chain) in the sense that it filled in missing links, that aren't presented in engineering, science, math, and business classes. If you are looking for a new way to view the world, or just some interesting, thought provoking reading, GET THIS BOOK!! It is well worth the investment.
Rating: 1
Summary: Buddha lite
Comment: Buddhist math? C'mon.
First, let me say that fuzzy logic and fuzzy arithmetic are great tools. They're valued parts of the 'soft logic' kit that includes probability, interval arithmetic, Bayesian and Markov networks, and lots of other good stuff. Fuzziness involves many of the formal techniques used in probability and elsewhere, and gives a useful, alternative view of the systems it addresses.
The basic fuzzy idea is that most descriptions involve shades gray, that few systems really match the black/white, on/off, either/or duality of standard formal logic. That's fine, I can get along with that quite well.
My basic problem, though, is that Kosko presents the fuzzy world-view vs. the traditional or "scientific" in exactly those black and white terms. He also argues that fuzziness describes the world more effectively than "scientific" terms, that the rules of arithmetic, probability, and calculus are just games. They are played for their internal consistency, not because differentiation or factorials occur in nature.
That's true, and as a heavy math user I know enough to distinguish my models from reality. Two facts remain, though. First, the models very often do describe reality in ways that can be checked easily enough: the bridge doesn't fall down and the TV receives its signal. Both happen because the bad old exact arithmetic has some kind of correspondence (no, I don't know what) to the real world, giving real ability to predict real results. Second, fuzzy logic and fuzzy arithmetic are themselves mathematical formalisms. Once you get past the gee-whiz stage, there is mathematical content as rigorous as in any other field of study. It's not either/or, it's very often a different way to interpret the same self-consistent games people have played for years. It adds interesting rules to the game.
The great thing is that you really can use the new interpretations and tools along with the old ones. Fuzziness doesn't demolish the old structures, it bolsters them and adds capacity.
And you can get all these benefits without shrink-wrapped, bite-sized pieces of Eastern philosophy.
Rating: 3
Summary: Too much Bart, not enough Fuzzy Thinking
Comment: Kosko describes the emerging frontier science of "fuzzy logic", making the argument that by simplifying machine operation and making it more like human thinking, this technology will allow very powerful machines to greatly enhance human life. Though sometimes overwhelmed by his fascination with himself (you have to see Mark Leyner's _Et Tu, Babe_ for a similar character), and sometimes overtaken with such bizarre fantasies as cryogenics (the hope for immortality by freezing your body so that someday, someone will be able to revive you), this book provides not only a useful description of fuzziness for the lay person, but some further context for the Aristotle vs. Tao debate opened in _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_. I think someone less fascinated by their own experiences could produce a better book; not once, for example, does someone like Richard Epstein have to tell us that he is exceptionally intelligent in order for us to understand that he is.
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Title: FUZZY LOGIC: THE REVOLUTIONARY COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY THAT IS CHANGING OUR WORLD by Daniel Mcneill ISBN: 0671875353 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 14 April, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Heaven in a Chip: Fuzzy Visions of Society and Science in the Digital Age by Bart Kosko ISBN: 0609805673 Publisher: Three Rivers Press (CA) Pub. Date: 07 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Fuzzy Logic for Beginners by Masao Mukaidono, Hiroaki Kikuchi ISBN: 9810245343 Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Neural Networks and Fuzzy Systems: A Dynamical Systems Approach to Machine Intelligence/Book and Disk by Bart Kosko ISBN: 0136114350 Publisher: Prentice Hall Pub. Date: 01 June, 1991 List Price(USD): $95.00 |
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Title: How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker ISBN: 0393318486 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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