Information is precious. It reduces our uncertainty in making decisions. Knowledge about the outcome of an uncertain event gives the possessor an advantage. It changes the course of lives, nations, and history itself. Information is the food of Maxwell's demon. His power comes from know- ing which particles are hot and which particles are cold. His existence was paradoxical to classical physics and only the realization that information too was a source of power led to his taming. Information has recently become a commodity, traded and sold like or- ange juice or hog bellies. Colleges give...

This volume contains selected papers written by the founder of fuzzy set theory, Lotfi A. Zadeh. As both founder of, and contributor to, this field, his work contains many of the major ideas in fuzzy set theory, fuzzy logic and fuzzy systems in their historical context.