Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!decwrl!megatest!djones
From: djones@megatest.UUCP (Dave Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Proof of Existence...
Message-ID: <14041@goofy.megatest.UUCP>
Date: 28 Sep 90 20:10:21 GMT
References: <772@aeshq.UUCP>
Organization: Megatest Corporation, San Jose, Ca
Lines: 19

From article <772@aeshq.UUCP>, by harry@aeshq.UUCP (Harry Pulley):
>  [ speaking of "intellegent systems" ]
> ... But to think, a system must be able to examine a situation and say
> "I think that this outcome will occur, but I am not sure."

Of course, probability theory deals with exactly this kind of thing.

There is also a new branch of computer science, closely related to
probability, called "fuzzy logic", a.k.a "fuzzy-set theory".
It is still a new discipline, but it looks very interesting and promising.
In standard Boolean algebra, the "characteristic function" of a predicate
maps objects into the set {0,1}. If the predicate is satisfied for that
object, it maps to one, otherwise it maps to zero.  Fuzzy predicates map
objects into the interval [0,1] not to 0 or 1. The number indicates to what
extent the predicate is applicable to the object. The mapping is usually
somewhat arbitrary. For example, a 5'11'' person might have a "tall" number
of .8, while a seven-footer would be considered completely "tall" at 1.0.
Many of the operations and theorems of Boolean algebra can be abstracted
in the theory of fuzzy logic.