Zadeh's Vision, Modern Physics, and the Future of Computing

Authors

Vladik Kreinovich, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Olga Kosheleva, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow

Publication Date

2-1-2021

Comments

Technical Report: UTEP-CS-21-17a

Published in Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, 2021, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 41-53.

Abstract

At first glance, Zadeh's ideas that everything is a matter of degree seem to be more appropriate for situations when we do not know the exact equations, when we only have expert rules for control and/or decision making. From this viewpoint, it may seem that in physics, where equations are ubiquitous and all the terms seem precise, there is not much place for fuzziness. But, as we show, in reality, fuzzy ideas can help -- and help dramatically -- in physics as well: in spite of the first impression, as physicists know well, many arguments in physics rely heavily on physical intuition, on imprecise terms like randomness, and a natural formalization of these terms makes them a matter of degree.