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"There's a tendency to think that maybe if we can just throw enough hardware at the AI problem, then evolution can take care of the rest. Certainly that's how God went about making us."
- Rudy Rucker

Needle-Ray  
  Very thin beam of destruction.  

This is an early version of this idea.

He spun a couple of wheels briefly, pressed a switch, and from the Violet's heaviest needle-ray projector there flashed out against the prow of the scout patrol a pencil of incredibly condensed destruction.
Technovelgy from Skylark of Valeron, by E.E. 'Doc' Smith.
Published by Astounding in 1934
Additional resources -

Used just a few years later by Nat Schachner in Reverse Universe (1936):

They came on with a rush, filling the tiny conning tower with their hulking, unwashed bodies. Flame projectors snouted in their grubby fingers — weapons that should have been under seal in the arms compartment — and hatred glared from their half-mad eyes.

Talbot’s hand darted down toward his belt where his needle ray dangled, stopped with a jerk. A half dozen projectors were trained on him, ready to blast him out of existence.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Skylark of Valeron
  More Ideas and Technology by E.E. 'Doc' Smith
  Tech news articles related to Skylark of Valeron
  Tech news articles related to works by E.E. 'Doc' Smith

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