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"I went [to the top of] Vehicle Assembly Building and looked down, and tears burst from my eyes. The size of this cathedral where the Rockets take off to go to the moon is so amazing."
- Ray Bradbury
 |
| Robot Comedian | ||
| Joke-telling feature added to a standard butler robot. |
Teledar comedian Lester the Jester (the "glib sahib of ad-lib") has a butler robot designed to his personal specifications to make use of his extensive joke file to tell original material. Here's how he reacts to the delivery of his new robot comedian.
| "You changed his shape!" Lester yelped accusingly, "I sent you a smooth-lined twenty-two hundred and seven model with the cylindrical trunk. You bring back a pear-shaped piece of machinery looking like a wadjacallit - as if it had a paunch all the way around!"
"Look, sir, the techs just had to expand his midsection. Even on microwire that file of jokes took up a lot of space... More space, more weight. But let me turn him on." The man in the visored helmet inserted a convoluted length of iridium - an official Robot Master Key - into the back of the robot's neck. Two full clanking turns and the machinery purred. Eyebrow ridges clinked upward. Multi-linked lips pursed questioningly. |
| Technovelgy from The Jester,
by William Tenn. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1951 Additional resources -
|
The robot comedian had two key features that allowed him to ad-lib jokes on demand: a variable modifier and a meson filter.
Compare to the roboscribe, a robotic writer of detective mysteries, from End as a Robot by Richard Marsten.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Jester
More Ideas
and Technology by William Tenn
Tech news articles related to The Jester
Tech news articles related to works by William Tenn
Robot Comedian-related
news articles:
- 'Comical Robot' An Aid To Conversations
- RoboThespian - Robot Comedian Wants Louis CK's Job
- Ginger the LOLbot
- Comedian Robot Named Data
- Pun Generation Via Neural Nets
- Memes Now Come From Neural Nets
| Athena Smart Security Guard Robot With Face Recognition |
| SpaceHopper Microgravity Robot Lands On Its Feet |
| No Tips! Robotic Food Delivery In Phoenix |
| Micro-Robots Are Smallest, Fully Functional |
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'You are who we say you are, Dr. Dakin,' Turner said.'
'It's area, and its consequent light-gathering capacity, was many times greater than any rigid mirror...'
'Tell me your torments,' the Padre said, in an elderly voice marked with compassion.
'...a slender-legged tripod surmounted by a spherical body no larger than a football.'
'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'
'The area affected was five hundred kilometres across, and perfectly circular.'
