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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
 |
| Weightless Work Area | ||
| A small workspace within which there is no gravitational pull. |
Joe Fernwright, pot-healer, spends his days mending broken ceramic pots of all kinds. What kind of workspace would be ideal for him?
| He walked over to it and inspected it with wonder. A weightless area, where gravity was balanced by a ring of invisible counterspin: this was the ultimate workshop device for a pot-healer, this weightless area. He would not need to secure the pieces of pot in order to mend them together ; the pieces, in the weightless chamber, would simply remain where he put them... the positioning would be absolutely exact. Nothing would slip, slide or tilt during the healing process.
Never in his life had he seen a more well-equipped workshop for pot-healing. |
| Technovelgy from Galactic Pot-Healer,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Berkley Publishing in 1969 Additional resources -
|
Is there such a thing as a gravity-free workspace here on Earth? It seems impossible. However, take a look at the low gravity bioreactor which simulates this kind of space for biology research.
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'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
'We had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect.'
'Detailed plans for the construction of the Gundstetter-Halone warp drive were flowing.'
'Do not waste your priceless company on the unappreciative folds of a sleep pod...'
'...so we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
