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"...a market economy is essentially a genetic algorithm for solving resource allocation problems..."
- Charles Stross

Automatic Judge  
  Automatically listens to the plaintiff and defendant and provides a just verdict.  

"And that very peculiar machine next to the sandwich canning machine?" asked Pep.

"That," replied Doctor Haekensaw proudly, "is one of my greatest triumphs in inventing. That is an Automatic Judge. Our courts are now all overcrowded with cases. This machine will automatically listen to the pleadings of the contending parties and give a just decision. In fact I'll guarantee the decisions of the machine to be equitable in 999 cases out of a thousand — which is a larger proportion than any judge I ever heard of can boast."

"How ridiculous!" retorted Pep, "Whoever heard of an 'automatic judge!' Why such a thing is impossible! A machine can't possibly think — or have judgment!"

Technovelgy from Dr. Hackensaw's Secrets Some Minor Inventions, by Clement Fezandie.
Published by Amazing Stories in 1926
Additional resources -

Compare to the mechanical judge from The Lord of Tranerica (1939) by Stanton A. Coblentz and the robot judge from Robot Justice (1959) by Harry Harrison.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Dr. Hackensaw's Secrets Some Minor Inventions
  More Ideas and Technology by Clement Fezandie
  Tech news articles related to Dr. Hackensaw's Secrets Some Minor Inventions
  Tech news articles related to works by Clement Fezandie

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