Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sunybcs!bingvaxu!vu0112
From: vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (vu0112)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Fuzzy sets
Message-ID: <778@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>
Date: 9 Feb 88 21:43:30 GMT
References: <275@mmlai.UUCP>
Reply-To: vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu ()
Organization: SUNY Binghamton, NY
Lines: 47

In article <275@mmlai.UUCP> barash@mmlai.UUCP (Rev. Steven C. Barash) writes:
>
>Does anyone reading this understand "Fuzzy set theory"/"Fuzzy logic"
>and its applicability to automated reasoning?

I'm trying to. . .

>In particular, I'm interested in how one might verify empirically
>(or experimentally, as with probability theory) the accuracy of the
>fuzzy set formaulas for appropriate domains.  

I'm not sure how such verification would differ from that for crisp formulas.

>Also, for a given problem,
>how should one determine the suitability of fuzzy sets (instead of traditional
>methods) for reasoning under uncertainty?  

First, obviously, if the system in question is non-deterministic, then
fuzzy methods must come into play.  It should be recognized that
probability theory is a special case of fuzzy theory.  

Now, as to the question of whether to use non-probabilistic (e.g. 
possibilistic) fuzzy methods, that depends on the law of the excluded
middle (True(A) => False(~A)), which probability conforms to, and
possibility does not.  If the samples are highly interdependant, fuzzy
can yield better results.  I recently wrote a paper on Fuzzy Artificial
Inference and Expert Systems.  Fuzzy promises a much more succesful,
general method for approximate reasoning.

>The journal articles
>tend to be rather specialized, and don't address such basic issues.

Try _Fuzzzy_Sets_and_Systems_.  Also, I'd reccommend _Fuzzy_Sets,
Ucertainty,_and_Information_ (George Klir, Prentic Hall 1988), which is
an excellent introduction and bibliography.  Read anything by Zadeh.

>Please repond by E-mail; I'll post a summary if interest is sufficient.

Sorry, couldn't resist.  Plus my mailer usually chokes these days.

>                                 Steve Barash

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| Systems Science Department, SUNY Binghamton, Binghamton, NY
| vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu
V All the world is biscuit shaped. . .