Zadeh’s Vision of Going from Fuzzy to Computing With Words: from the Idea’s Origin to Current Successes to Remaining Challenges

Need for incorporating expert knowledge into automated systems. In order to better understand Zadeh’s vision of going from fuzzy to computing with words, let us recall the reason why we need to use words in computations and whey fuzzy techniques were invented in the first place. These techniques come from the need for expert knowledge. In many application areas, we rely on experts: medical doctors diagnose and cure diseases, civil engineers design reliable bridges and roads, pilots control planes, etc. Some experts are more skilled than others. Every patient wants to be diagnosed and treated by the best doctors, every passenger wants to be flown by the best pilots, etc. The problem is that realistically, the best doctor cannot physically treat all the millions of illnesses, the best pilot cannot himor herself fly all thousands of planes. Since we cannot have the best medical doctor treat every patient, we should help all the other doctors use the knowledge and experience of the best ones – and maybe even allow the patients themselves to use this knowledge. Similarly, we should help all the pilots to use the knowledge and experience of the best ones. In general, we want all the experts to use the expertise of the best ones. For that, we need to incorporate the knowledge of the best experts into an automated system that others can use.