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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
 |
| Bolognium | ||
| Very early fictional element, courtesy of metallurgists. |
See also the article for the word "unobtainium".
| ...the Sillinoise Steel company was described. In the absence of the author, the paper was read by Dr. E.Z. Dame of Never Ready Batteries (Edgar C. Bain). The author's abstract follows:
This paper describes some of the alloys of the newly discovered element Gafnium. The element is named after the famous worker in steel who has but to mention a certain steel when lo! it becomes a super-metal... The element Gafnium is very similar to the element Bolognium with which it alloys in all proportions following a series of inter metallic compounds none of which are attracted by mice at ordinary pressures. |
| Technovelgy from Transactions of Amer Soc for Steel Treating,
by Edgar Bain. Published by Amer Soc Steel Treating in 1926 Additional resources -
|
This is not really a science fiction short story, but was instead a humorous effort by diligent metallurgists and materials scientists. Compare to many entries in List of Materials in Science Fiction.
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Tech news articles related to works by Edgar Bain
| Harvard Metamaterials Change Structure Instantly |
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| Goldene - A Two-Dimensional Sheet Of Gold One Atom Thick |
| GNoME AI From DeepMind Invents Millions Of New Materials |
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'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
'Oscar picked up a trowel. 'I'm the tool for the mortar,' the little trowel squeaked cheerfully.'
'... he waited for the robotrix attendant to finish fueling up his ship.'
The Roujin Z system provides care to fully bedridden patients - and then some!
'Aerostat meant anything that hung in the air. This was an easy trick to pull off nowadays.'
'The Ringworld had no horizon. There was no line where the land curved away from the sky.'
'An adjustment panel outside the door would cause it to extrude various appurtenances in memory plastic...'
'Annealed in any shape for a time, and codified, the structure of that shape is retained down to the molecules.'
It's not really polite to tear the limbs off robots.
'...the imaginary companions discovered by needful children.'
