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"In science fiction one can say a great many things that are unpalatable, … because it's expressed as science fiction you can slip it past their defenses."
- Frederik Pohl

Composite Expert System  
  Intelligent teaching software - a computer interface with a heart.  

In this alternative future story, humanity has (for all intents and purposes) separated into groups that serve particular functions. But, even with this specialization, sometimes a machine does a better job - if it has the right teaching software program.

When Nikolai Leng was a child, his teacher was a cybernetic system with a holographic interface. The holo took the form of a young Shaper woman. It's "personality" was an interactive composite expert system manufactured by Shaper psychotechs. Nikolai loved it.
Technovelgy from Twenty Evocations, by Bruce Sterling.
Published by Interzone in 1984
Additional resources -

It takes a lot of patience to answer every question of an inquisitive child - and a lot of time at the dictionary! Also, it is not enough to know the answers; you need to reward the child and know how to motivate him or her to achieve their full potential.

Compare to Idoru from Idoru (1996) by William Gibson, Adam Selene from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966) by Robert Heinlein and synthespian from Nestor Sextone for President (1988) by Jeff Kleiser.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Twenty Evocations
  More Ideas and Technology by Bruce Sterling
  Tech news articles related to Twenty Evocations
  Tech news articles related to works by Bruce Sterling

Composite Expert System-related news articles:
  - Easy With Eve Virtual Teacher Understands Student Emotions

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Science Fiction in the News

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'... folios and tapes and playable discs of platinum alloy.'

Can 'Tactical Umbrellas' Shield One From Drones
'... another corner of his mind began to think about the shields.'

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A massive space borne lifeform from ST:TNG.

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'Michel Ardan, as a Frenchman, was declared chief cook, an important function, which raised no rival.'

Amazing Photonic Crystal Light Sail
'That sail will be twenty thousand miles at the wide part.'

Rogue AI Replicated Itself
'Sapiro’s computer just kept dialing at random, hanging up on humans, until it got a fellow computer of the same type as itself.'

HandelBot Helps Two-Handed Robots Learn Piano
'I request that you feed the correlation between those dots and the levers of the panel into my memory banks.'

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