Neuro Fuzzy
My brother, a computer-scientist, often jokes that my beloved Zojirushi rice cooker, which boasts “Advanced neuro fuzzy® logic technology,” is all the Japanese have to show for the billions of dollars they invested in “fifth generation computers.” Well, a recent post by Mark Liberman at Langauge Log seems to suggest that my brother might be right:
In the case of the four stages of rice cooking, I suppose that a fuzzy logic controller is able to treat the process as a series of fuzzy or gradient transitions rather than a series of hard, stepwise transitions.
I won’t even attempt to summarize the discussion (read Mark’s post), but I will comment that unlike my older non-fuzzy rice cooker my neuro-fuzzy cooker seems to cook the rice exactly the same every time, no matter how I adjust the water-to-rice ratio. (More advanced models give you more control over how “done” you want the rice.) It also cooks it quite evenly throughout.
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Comments
I rather wish you hadn’t mentioned “neuro fuzzy” rice cookers since up until now I’ve been more than happy with my entirely manual Zojirushi rice cooker, which looks similar to the low-end Automatic Rice Cooker & Warmer (NS-RNC10/18A) that hasn’t attracted a single review at Amazon.com.
Now you’ve left me wondering if I’m missing out on the ultimate rice experience…
They’d have to pry my dying hands to take my Neuro fuzzy away from me!
To be honest, you can do OK in a pot on the stove - but I’m the kind who always burns the rice. I love being able to program the rice in advance. You can have congee for breakfast if you like, or rice waiting for you when you get home. It also cycles the temp to keep the rice warm … etc.
An anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, 
“my brother might be right”?
- Kerim’s brother