Fuzzy Cognitive Maps

I first came across fuzzy cognitive maps when I read the book Fuzzy Thinking by Bart Kosko (Flamingo, 1994). The book is about fuzzy logic and fuzzy technology, interspersed with a fair amount of philosophy. It is addressed to a non-specialised audience and has a divulgative nature. The author devotes part of a chapter (14 pages in all) to fuzzy cognitive maps. Bart Kosko seems to be very enthusiastic about the future of fuzzy cognitive maps and how they can be used to analyse systems that are otherwise difficult to comprehend due to the complex relationships between their components.

I thought that fuzzy cognitive maps are a very interesting idea that may have some potential. I was curious to try and see whether I had grasped the concept and could come up with a fuzzy cognitive map that provides information about a system. Since programming is understanding, I thought that the best way to ensure that I had understood something was to write a program to draw and run fuzzy cognitive maps. I programmed an applet that you can find here. After that, I wrote some tutorials and then the rest of this web site. The last addition has been the forum.

In the future this web site will keep growing. I will add more material and I will refine what is already here. Any comments are welcome.