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"You have to budget the number of fuzzy rules you use to control a system. It turns out, you can state the optimality principle in three words: 'patch the bumps.'"
- Bart Kosko

Live Carpet  
  A carpet made of living fibers; the backing is a digestive system.  

Yes, I'll take this stuff wall-to-wall. For those with small children (and no dog), this self-cleaning carpet is just what the doctor ordered.

A radio assayer hung from the track mounted in the apartment ceiling, having replaced the sniffer. Dustmice pushed through the cold stiff tendrils of once live carpet searching it for skin flakes and other debris trapped in the carpet's custom digestion.
Technovelgy from Queen of Angels, by Greg Bear.
Published by Warner Books in 1990
Additional resources -

Unaccountably, the Monsanto or other related websites seem to have no information on when I can get live carpet. I'm guessing it would have the following additional advantage over a live grass carpet - no mowing!

For those who prefer real turf, see the entry for living grass carpet, from Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Queen of Angels
  More Ideas and Technology by Greg Bear
  Tech news articles related to Queen of Angels
  Tech news articles related to works by Greg Bear

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