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From: rteasdal@galaxy.csc.calpoly.edu (Russ Teasdale)
Subject: Re: Essay: Fuzzy Acceptance in US, Elsewhere..(longish)
Message-ID: <1994Sep30.191523.14126@rat.csc.calpoly.edu>
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 94 19:15:23 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Department, Cal Poly SLO
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References: <hoffmann-3009940925400001@bic9.sri.com>
Lines: 58

In article <hoffmann-3009940925400001@bic9.sri.com>,
Marcelo Hoffmann <hoffmann@sri.com> wrote:
>Here is the paper for those without access to the World Wide Web. For
>those who do have access I have posted another paper to do with the
>Internet...  
>
>I would appreciate any feedback on this one.  
>
	[snip]
>
>Another possibility for the limited entry of fuzzy logic in the United
>States is that Lotfi Zadeha Russian-born mathematician of Iranian descent
>who is now professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at
>the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), is not perceived as
>an"insider" in getting government support. The University of California at
>Berkeley is not in the top echelon of government supported computer
>science laboratories in the country either. This is highly ironic, given
>that one of the most important versions of commercial UNIX (and also the
>leading element in so-called "open systems") was developed at UCB, and
>that developments and graduates from UCB have been instrumental in the
>formation and success of Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics, two of the
>fastest growing computer companies in the world (Sun was formed in 1980,
>and now sells over $4 billion a year, while Silicon Graphics was formed in
>1982, and now sells around $1.2 billion per year). 
>

	With regard to the comments above about Sun and SGI, I would
note (as an ex-Berkeleyan myself) that the Stanford influence was equal
or greater in the case of both companies. While Bill Joy brought BSD Unix
to Sun, the hardware was from the Farm (Stanford University Network = SUN).
Jim Clark of SGI and most of the grad students who formed the initial
cadre at SGI came from Stanford. Credit where due should be apportioned.

	As far as the alleged neglect or even allegedly active hostility
toward fuzzy logic in the U.S. is concerned, I don't see it. I've been
working in fuzzy for four years now, and I have yet to feel neglected or
insulted by anyone, anywhere, at any time. 

	Rather, friends and co-workers and academic associates have been
keenly interested, and constantly pumping me for advice and information.
The fact that fuzzy logic didn't vault immediately into the forefront of
consciousness among working computer scientists and researchers in the
U.S. is more simply explained: the whole field is exploding; there are
huge and significant new challenges everywhere, in virtually all segments
of computing that one would care to name, and that the resulting din has
made it hard for a small and timid new entrant to be noticed.

	It's not that the dish isn't good, by analogy, but rather that
it's being served as part of a sumptuary twelve-course state banquet.
Even superb cuisine tends to blend in under such circumstances :-)


 
-- 
||||| Russ (Rusty) Teasdale -- rteasdal@galaxy.CalPoly.EDU -- I'm the NRA |||||
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"Gentlemen, if we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure." - D. Quayle

