Читать книгу Introduction to Fuzzy Logic - James K. Peckol - Страница 46

We open this text with a challenge and a foundation. Whether crisp or fuzzy, whether involving animals, humans, or machines, philosophers, scientists, and educators have studied, debated, and analyzed terms such as think, ponder, logic, reason, philosophize, or learn for centuries. Yet today, our understanding of these processes still has the opportunity to grow. Given such a history, what do we know?

Let us start with learning. Learning is a process that starts (at least) immediately after birth and continues, often unobtrusively, through the remaining years of life. Recent research, however, has found that learning may actually begin months earlier. Nevertheless, the term itself generally evokes childhood memories of old books, pedagogical teachers, and stuffy classrooms on warm spring afternoons when we would rather be outside playing. If we pause and reflect for a moment, we realize that learning is not limited to that proffered by the pendants of previous days but is a natural part of our daily existence. Each time that we encounter a fresh idea, make a new discovery, or solve one of life's many challenges, we are learning; we are growing and enriching our perceived model of our world or potentially what lies in space beyond.

Understanding the concepts of learning and reasoning is playing an increasingly significant role in the modern high‐tech design, development, and implementation of perceptrons, neural networks, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the primary topic of this text, i.e., fuzzy systems. We mentioned two terms: “crisp” and “fuzzy.” We now introduce and explore thought and reasoning in such systems.