Zhou Wei locked himself in his office, staring at the increasingly chaotic control parameters, feeling like his mind was a tangled mess of yarn scratched by a cat. Precise mathematical models seemed so pale and powerless in the face of real-world uncertainties and noise. Frustrated, he pushed aside the keyboard and rubbed his throbbing temples.

Liu Li walked in carrying two cups of freshly boiled hot water, placing one cup next to Zhou Wei. Looking at the dazzling curves and formulas on the screen, and then at Zhou Wei's furrowed brow, she knew he had encountered a difficult situation.

"Mr. Zhou, have some water and take a break." She pushed the cup forward and sat down on the chair next to her. "I suddenly remembered the time when Master Wang taught me how to sharpen drill bits."

Zhou Wei raised his eyelids listlessly, clearly feeling that this had nothing to do with the advanced control algorithm in front of him.

Liu Li didn't mind and continued talking to herself, "Back then, I always wanted to grind quickly and precisely, strictly following the angle gauge, but the drill bits I ground either had poor chip formation or short lifespan. Master Wang would scold me for being stubborn." She imitated Master Wang's tone, "'You have to have a feel for it! A slight difference in angle won't kill you, but you have to be able to feel which side of the cutting edge is too high and which is too low. If the feel of the grinding wheel against the surface isn't right, you have to make immediate adjustments!'"

She looked at Zhou Wei, her eyes clear: "He doesn't rely on calculations, but on feel and feedback. If he feels more resistance, he loosens his grip; if he hears a harsh sound, he adjusts the angle. There are no absolutely precise values; it's a process of continuous observation, judgment, and fine-tuning, with only one goal—to make the drill bit work well."

As Zhou Wei listened, the unconscious tapping of his fingers on the table slowed down. He seemed to have caught something.

Liu Li continued, "Our device is like a stubborn novice right now, insisting on adjusting it according to the 'standard answer,' but the system itself isn't standard. The signal has noise, the mechanics have delays, it can't react in time, and it over-adjusts itself. Can we... let it learn this 'feel' too?"

"Feel?" Zhou Wei murmured, his brows still furrowed, but the tangled mess in his eyes seemed to have been untangled. "You mean... fuzzy control? Not pursuing precise mathematical models, but based on rules, making experience-based judgments like a human?"

“Yes, yes, yes!” Although Liu Li didn’t quite understand the technical term “fuzzy control,” she felt it meant something similar. “Let’s not let it calculate that perfectly accurate ‘point.’ Let’s set a few simple rules, such as: if the vibration is ‘very small,’ don’t move it; if the vibration is ‘a little large,’ adjust it slightly; if the vibration is ‘very large,’ adjust it more. After adjusting, check the effect. If the vibration decreases, it means the direction is correct, and we’ll do it the same way next time; if it increases, we’ll adjust it back. It’s like… like an old Chinese medicine doctor taking a pulse. He doesn’t necessarily calculate the specific values ​​of blood pressure and blood sugar, but just feels the pulse as ‘floating,’ ‘deep,’ ‘slow,’ ‘rapid,’ and then prescribes medicine accordingly.”

This almost instinctive line of thinking, based on practical observation, pierced through the fog of precise formulas in Zhou Wei's mind like a faint but clear ray of light. He had been obsessed with finding a definite, optimal mathematical solution for this uncertain system, but he had overlooked the fact that control itself could also be a dynamic, near-optimal optimization process based on experience and rules.

“Fuzzy sets…membership functions…rule bases…” Zhou Wei muttered some technical terms, his fingers returning to the keyboard. This time, however, he wasn’t blindly adjusting parameters; instead, he was beginning to outline a new algorithmic framework. This framework no longer attempted to precisely describe the entire world, but rather tried to mimic an experienced master craftsman, finding the path that would allow the machine to run smoothly amidst uncertainty, relying on simple rules and feedback.

The dilemma of algorithms seems to have found a possible solution. Although this path may not seem "scientific," or even a bit "crude," it may be more suitable for the rough but real system they have in their hands.