Fuzzy logic changes how you see the world and is a revolutionary way of thinking for Western cultures. Fuzzy logic is based on contradiction, ambiguity and uncertainty. For thousands of years the Western world has locked itself into a system of “binary” logic which causes a “binary” reflex or reaction.
This means that day to day we react to many things in oversimplified terms of “absolutes”, seeing things as black or white, good or bad, right or wrong, all or nothing, without recognizing the possible “shades of gray”. This binary “all or nothing” thinking reflex is our most used decision making reaction in the West.
In contrast, the Eastern cultures view the world from a more complex perspective–as unity NOT separation. Unlike the West, Eastern thought is not closed-minded in their thinking habits but instead are open-minded to contradiction, uncertainty and ambiguity. In the East, thinking is as if everything is relative to everything else or a matter of degree as virtually nothing is absolute or “carved in stone”, so to speak, like Western thinking tends to evolve.
Western thinking habits tend to try and keep things as simple as possible, maybe unjustifiably so. The Eastern way of thinking tends to be geared more toward 21st Century logic–with no bounds. It is complex, infinite and boundless compared to the West’s 18th Century way of thinking which is more absolutist, finite, restricting, not to mention easier and simpler to practice.
So, what is the result of the Eastern way of thinking? “Fuzzy” logic! Using it we can look forward to “smart” technology, like washing machines that adapt to their loads, air conditioners that regulate their energy output according to room temperature and camcorders that autofocus. Someday most, if not all, “smart” technology will operate with advanced, Eastern-style “fuzzy” logic.