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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
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| Automat | ||
| Unusual name for an intelligent robot; short for "automaton"? |
This is an unusual word; in the early part of the Twentieth century, the word "automat" was most commonly used for a place where what we would call automatic vending machines would provide packaged or plated food in exchange for coins.
| “So be it. Scarecrow,’’ he said, holding his features impassive; for he was half afraid that the weird mechanical mind of the automat had somehow gained abnormal wisdom through its derangement, and could read his face. |
| From Mad Robot,
by Raymond Z. Gallun. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1936 Additional resources -
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'THE red tennis robot scooted desperately across the court...'
'The Consul remembered his first glimpse of the kilometer-long treeship...'
'Do you know what window washing used to cost by the hour?'
'Once the target is confirmed, it uses an IR laser to send a coded signal back to the parent, clearing it to attack.'
'I filled your bullet hole with flesh putty and the lattice.'
'... it will be easy to form an alphabet which shall enable us to converse with the inhabitants of the moon.'
'From the tower's huge octagonal base radiate wide silvery strips...'
'It was about five feet long... a black bullet head and red camera eyes.'
'The Law Society has strict rules on the use of pseudo-intelligent software...'
