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"The best fuzzy rules, the best knowledge, deal with the turning points of the system. If a race-car driver teaches you how to drive, you don't need him to show you how to drive on the straightaway. It's how he handles the curves that matters."
- Bart Kosko
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| Variable Modifier | ||
| Provides the capability of altering standard jokes to fit new circumstances. |
Lester the Jester designs a robot comedian to help him with the creation of off-the-cuff jokes.
| "...your order said for him to be able to be able to work out twists on the gags in the file - so they rassled up a new gimmick, what they call a variable modifier..." |
| Technovelgy from The Jester,
by William Tenn. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1951 Additional resources -
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Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
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'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
'The greatest problem of all was the elimination of the human element of braking together with its inevitable time lag.'
'Across the ancient sea floor a dozen tall, blue-sailed Martian sand ships floated, like blue smoke.'
'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
