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"People ask me how I do research for my science fiction. The answer is, I never do any research. I just enjoy reading the stuff, and some of it sticks in my mind and fits into the stories."
- Frederik Pohl
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| 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
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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
| Unitree CEO Wang Xingxing Runs With His G1 Robot Army |
| Blue Collar AI Goes To Work To Mine Its Own Crypto |
| HandelBot Helps Two-Handed Robots Learn Piano |
| Woven Fiber Electronic Skin For Robots |
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'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
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'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'
'...a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell.'
'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'
