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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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| Factory in the Sky | ||
| A vast manufacturing facility in space, between Mars and Jupiter. |
Situated where the riches of the solar system swirled in orbit around the sun, the Factory in the Sky made what everyone needed.
| The vast spinning sphere of Factory in the Sky loomed above and ahead of us, gleaming white against the unfathomable jet depths of surrounding space. About the thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference, anchored securely to its vast metallic skin, were spaced a score or more smaller half-spheres where experimental, executive, production, personnal [sic], advertising and various other departments had their headquarters.
 ('Factory in the Sky' by Basil E. Wells) Here on the rim of the clustering asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter were the mammoth shuttle ships—luxurious globe ships for passengers—the swift cruisers of the Patrol, and the grubby little ships of the asteroid prospectors and freighters constructed, serviced and repaired at Factory in the Sky. Twenty million men, women and children lived here in the airless void, dependent for their living upon the continued construction of new and better space ships. Less than half a million of the workers were employed in the construction of the great ships; the balance worked on the hothouse worlds where vegetables, fruit and animals were grown, or in the three outer levels of The Factory where a thousand small factories leased space and produced their own specialized products. |
| Technovelgy from Factory in the Sky,
by Basil E. Wells. Published by Astonishing Stories in 1941 Additional resources -
|
Compare to orbiting factories from The Fountains of Paradise (1978) by Arthur C. Clarke.
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Tech news articles related to works by Basil E. Wells
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news articles:
- Factories In The Sky Will Surpass Those Of Earth
| Factories In The Sky Will Surpass Those Of Earth |
| Monolith One Giant Industrial Metal 3D-printer |
| DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures' |
| Robot Bricklayer Or Passer-By Bricklayer? |
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
