Laws@SRI-AI.ARPA (08/03/84)
From: Ken Laws <Laws@SRI-AI.ARPA>
I have recently run across the July 9 issue of Business Week, which
featured Artificial Intelligence as its cover story (pp. 54-62).
Much of the article discussed expert systems and the 40 or so companies
now trying to market them.
The August 1984 issue of IEEE Spectrum contains an excellent article by
Lotfi Zadeh about fuzzy logic and its applications to process control,
robot navigation, database access, expert systems, and other topics.
He mentions that fuzzy mathematics now includes the theory of fuzzy
topological spaces, fuzzy measures, fuzzy groups, fuzzy random variables,
fuzzy arithmetic, fuzzy analysis, fuzzy stability theory, fuzzy systems,
and fuzzy graphs. Dr. Zadeh presents a good case for fuzzy linguistics
and fuzzy reasoning (as in MYCIN and PROSPECTOR) as essential elements
of expert systems and learning systems.
For more fuzzy talk, the issue reprints an 1884 Life magazine article about
the cat battery. An excerpt:
Cats, according to Tyndall, are either electro-positive or
electro-negative. When in the neutral state (see Plate I) both
fluids are combined, and the most sensitive galvanometer can detect no
current. Thus insulated, neither A nor B exhibits either attraction
or repulsion for surrounding objects, excepting for a hot stove or a
piece of fish. But this affinity, according to the recent
investigations of Siemens and Halske, is the result of chemical and
not electrical attraction.
Now, however, let us submit electro-positive cat A and
electro-negative cat B to exciting influences (see Plate II).
Instantly we observe the development of electrical energy -- A being
strongly positive that he is the better cat, while B is as violently
negative. This, as has been proved by the experiments of Prescott,
Edison, and others, is due to induction; each cat trying to induce the
other to believe that he isn't afraid.
This electrical state of activity is accompanied by all the well-known
electro-static phenomena. The hairs of each cat stand on end, and
surrounding objects -- such as bootjacks, soap, cough-medicine
bottles, and crockery -- may be attracted with great velocity from
distances of 100 to 250 feet.
Cats are absolute non-conductors. This fact was discovered in 1876 by
Gerritt Smith, while vainly endeavoring to conduct a cat out of the
coal cellar. It might be urged, therefore, that they had high
internal resistance. This is not true. The external resistance
(again glance at Plate II) is very high, but the internal resistance
is never over one Ohm ("'ome" or "home," to give German, English, and
American terms), while in many cases it is less, as is witnessed by
the fact that there are 1,317,009 ohmless cats in this city alone.
But while the internal resistance is surprisingly low, the intensity
is so high that by inductive influence alone two cat elements can
maintain a whole neighborhood in a state of electrical excitement for
hours. [...]
Speaking of fun with words, this issue of Spectrum also quotes a poll showing
that "chemists, if not actually better than all other human beings, are,
to say the least, a credit to their race and a damned fine group of
upstanding and patriotic Americans, all of whom embody the finest attributes
that can be attributed to those to whom those attributes can be attributed."
[From Ralph Steinhardt Jr. and David Weinman, "The Courteous Retort,"
Chemtech, Vol. 14, No. 6, June 1984.]
-- Ken Laws