The softest computer
H. John Caulfield, John L. Johnson · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2000
Neural networks, fuzzy systems, and evolutionary computation - the technologies featured in this conference - are often referred to collectively as soft computing. Like fuzzy logic this has an unfortunate overtone, but we are stuck with the term. I argue that the intuition that governed this grouping of technologies is that they are all human mimetic. Then I offer an overview of how to construct an artifact that, like you, uses those approaches to exercise judgement and innovate out of unforeseen problems.