In praise of Professor Lotfi Zadeh

Lotfi Zadeh: a Pioneer in AI, a Pioneer in Statistical Analysis, a Pioneer in Foundations of Mathematics, and a True Citizen of the World

Everyone knows Lotfi Zadeh as the Father of Fuzzy Logic. There have been – and will be – many papers on this important topic. What I want to emphasize in this paper is that his ideas go way beyond fuzzy logic: • he was a pioneer in AI; • he was a pioneer in statistical analysis; and • he was a pioneer in foundations of mathematics. My goal is to explain these ideas to non-fuzzy folks. I also wa...

In praise of petroleum?

Among other difficulties (1), the World Summit on Sustainable Development -Rio+10 struggled with defining “sustainability.” Typical of efforts to make concrete this slippery concept was a preparatory paper addressing one of the most pressing issues in human development, how to bring modern energy services to the one-third of humanity whose development and survival requirements suffer from lack ...

In praise of deaneries.

If you look at the foot of this article, you will see that my address is given as the London Deanery. This is possibly appearing there for the last time. I am not retiring just yet, but the structure of our institution is about to change, and possibly the name will do so too. This gives me an opportunity to write about deaneries, and why they have been such a force for good. In case you are uns...

In praise of hierarchy.

Hierarchy has not had its day. After 3,000 years as the preferred structure for large organizations, managerial hierarchy is still the most natural and effective organizational form that a big company can employ. Now, as in the past, the key to organizational success is individual accountability, and hierarchy preserves unambiguous accountability for getting work done. Unfortunately, hierarchy ...

In Praise of Rankings