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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
 |
| Veridicator | ||
| A device that measured physiologic responses (biometric data) and translated it to a set of colors that unerringly reported whether or not the measured person was telling the truth. |
This forgotten gem of a novel from the 1960's makes good use of a machine that unerringly tells whether or not the person believes what he or she is saying. The notion of dealing truthfully with yourself and your society is an important theme in the novel, and is an important idea for us in our world today.
| There was a bright conical helmet on his head, and electrodes had been clamped to various portions of his anatomy. On the wall behind him was a circular screen which ought to have been a calm turquoise blue, but which was flickering from dark blue through violet to mauve. That was simple nervous tension and guilt and anger at the humiliation of being subjected to veridicated interrogation. |
| Technovelgy from Little Fuzzy,
by H. Beam Piper. Published by Doubleday in 1962 Additional resources -
|
Would you behave differently if you knew that, at need, you could be veridicated? Would you live your entire life differently, if you knew that people could tell, without fail, whether or not you believed what you said? I think that the author believed that a life lived truthfully was a better life, and a more sentient, more civilized life.
Compare to the psychoprobe from Satellite Five (1938) by Arthur K. Barnes, the
mechanical judge from The Lord of Tranerica (1939) by Stanton A. Coblentz, the
quizzer from Agent of Vega (1949) by James Schmitz, the
psychic probe from Foundation and Empire (1952) by Isaac Asimov, the
truth meter from The Star Beast (1954) by Robert Heinlein and the
cephaloscope from The Houses of Iszm (1954) by Jack Vance.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Little Fuzzy
More Ideas
and Technology by H. Beam Piper
Tech news articles related to Little Fuzzy
Tech news articles related to works by H. Beam Piper
Veridicator-related
news articles:
- Blob Analysis Key To Next Generation Computerized Lie Detectors
- Cheaters May No Longer Prosper
| ElectionSim: China's 'Ender's Game' Battle Sim, Or Lem's 'Kingdom In A Box'? |
| Muxcard Redditor's DIY Credit Card-Sized Computer |
| Cortex 1 - Today A Warehouse, Tomorrow A Calculator Planet |
| Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness? |
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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...'
