Date:    Wed, 10 Nov 1993 02:39:20 -0500
From:    Carl W Hoffman <cwh@world.std.com>
Subject: Fly the Friendly Fuzzy-Logic Skies

This is not a joke.

=========

Tokyo, November 8th (Kyodo) -- A consortium of major Japanese aircraft
parts manufacturers and software companies announced they had won the
contract for developing the "fly-by-wire" control software for the new
generation of passenger planes to be developed in concert with Boeing.

Mr. Jiro Bagubayashi, Section Manager of the Fatal Software Defects
Analysis Section of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries stated: "Winning this
work proves the maturity of the Japanese software industry.  We plan
to leverage the expertise we gained in developing the control software
for the unmanned Osaka tram system."  When questioned about the recent
accident where the tram crashed through its stopping point and nearly
plummeted ten meters onto a road packed with rush hour traffic below,
Mr. Bagubayashi replied, "Actually that bug was due to our being
forced to use unnatural software constructs like the Western notions
of TRUE and FALSE.  We are now developing a new logic more suited to
Japanese culture, where NOT FALSE is still FALSE.  Anyway, that bug
only showed up when another bug that had been cancelling out its
effect was fixed. These things happen."

Queried as to why the cutover from the calendar system used during the
reign of the late Emperor Showa to that of the new Emperor Akihito
took up to three months at some Japanese companies, Mr. Bagubayashi
continued, "Don't underestimate the complexity of that problem.  You
have to subtract 25 from the old year and add 88 or something like
that, I forget, but our system analysts were able to spec it out."

Mr. Taro Kokedarake, Department Manager of the Fuzzy Software
Development Department at Japan Aeronautics Software, explained some
of the new technology to be used.  "Japan is a leader in applications
of fuzzy technology.  We have already proven its value in our vacuum
cleaners and washing machines.  We plan to be the first to apply the
technology to aeronautics, where it is perfect for situations such as
determining about where the flaps are positioned, whether or not the
plane is more or less pointing at the runway during landing, and 
whether or not the plane is sort of going in the right direction."

According to Japanese sources, the new software development plan will
also dramatically reduce the cost of new aircraft by making it
possible to eliminate the cumbersome backup and redundancy systems
required by the poor quality of Western software.