Students doing math in school learn about well defined sets.  They learn to discern whether something is or isn't in a set.  The number "two" is in a set of even numbers, and not in a set of odd numbers, and no number can be both even and odd.

Recently physicists and engineers started talking about fuzzy sets, where some things can belong to a certain degree in a set.  Fuzzy scientists think about questions that are matters of degree.  It's clear that you wouldn't put a four foot two inch man in a set of tall men.  But where does a five foot ten inch man fit?  Asians might not agree with North Americans about whether to put him in a tall set or not.

Any property like height, which is continuous, leaves us in a difficult situation.  If six foot is tall, how do we classify five foot eleven inches?

All this is not just philosophy, because engineers are using fuzzy sets to produce more flexible machines.  So, a fuzzy washing machine has an electronic eye that keeps track of a range of variables.  It adjusts its instructions in response to many quantities which come in degrees of difference.  How dirty is it?  How big is the load?  Similarly, smart T.V.s monitor and adjust the brightness and contrast of a shifting image.

So next time you are accused of fuzzy thinking, take comfort that today's scientists use fuzzy logic to deal with a world that is grey, rather than white and black.

MOVING BEYOND MATTER
With Christopher Shennan

Fuzzy thinking is not always bad, and admitting doubts may be the door through which we pass into certainty.

It is interesting to note that scientists often admit their ignorance regarding some aspects of the field they are studying.   In a previous science short, Dr. David Humphreys, said, "How stars wield power over an entire galaxy is an ongoing mystery to astronomers."*  The very act of admitting their ignorance spurs them on to further study and exploration.  No one enjoys being around someone who gives the impression he knows it all; that there is no possibility that he may have missed a point, or could learn something new.

So it is with life - no matter how much we know and have proved to ourselves, there is a vast universe of knowledge out there we can only imagine.  Of course, there are things we can be sure of, or life would be a shifting sea with no landfall possible, and no compass to steer by either.  But doubts and fuzzy thinking are inevitable.  What we do with our doubts is what determines our ultimate destination, though - either we arrive at satisfying answers, or we drown in a sea of doubtful conclusions.

Doubts may not be such a bad thing, so long as you are prepared to confront them with courage and diligent enquiry.

Too many people are content to be ignorant, or at least casual about spiritual things.  They cling to vague ideas that comfort them without considering the big questions of life in any meaningful kind of  way.  How long has it been since you gave serious thought to spiritual things?

*(See: Science Shorts - Action in the Galactic Atmosphere)