Word: humanity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...quit, can't stop trying to help, for that would make me an accomplice to the apathy and complacency that assassinate the human spirit. I haven't found what I'm looking for: a long-term strategy of improvement and repair for our ailing society. Perhaps I never will. But I know now that I'm not satisfied with the standard phrase of comfort frustrated volunteers get: "Anything is better than nothing...
...from scratch and deploying it in battle within 60 days. At the cleanup's peak, Exxon marshaled more than 1,400 boats, 85 aircraft and 11,300 people. With that mobilization came such daily logistic headaches as providing 200 tons of food and disposing of 1,400 gal. of human waste in a remote and unforgiving environment. "I think Exxon did a hell of a job," says David Usher, whose firm Marine Pollution Control has been cleaning up oil spills worldwide for 22 years. "They busted their butts...
...conventional air conditioner, for example, recognizes only two basic states: too hot or too cold. When geared for thermostat control, the cooling system either operates at full blast or shuts off completely. A fuzzy air conditioner, by contrast, would recognize that some room temperatures are closer to the human comfort zone than others. Its cooling system would begin to slow down gradually as the room temperature approached the desired setting. Result: a more comfortable room and a smaller electric bill...
Fuzzy logic began to find applications in industry in the early '70s, when it was teamed with another form of advanced computer science called the expert system. A product of research into artificial intelligence, expert systems solve complex problems somewhat like human experts do -- by applying rules of thumb. (Example: when the oven gets very hot, turn the gas down a bit.) In 1980 F.L. Smidth & Co. of Copenhagen began marketing the first commercial fuzzy expert system: a computer program that controlled the fuel-intake rate and gas flow of a rotating kiln used to make cement...
...showpiece: a subway system in Sendai, about 200 miles north of Tokyo, that is operated by a fuzzy computer. Not only does it give an astonishingly smooth ride (passengers do not need to hang on to straps), but it is also 10% more energy efficient than systems driven by human conductors...