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"Tokyo homeless people reiterate the whole nature of living in Tokyo in cardboard boxes, they're only slightly smaller than Tokyo apartments, and they have almost as many consumer goods. It's a nightmare of boxes within boxes."
- William Gibson

Total Environmental and Mental Simulator  
  An AI that could create and discard whole branches of science in pursuing the answer to a problem.  

This story presents the idea of a machine that can not only think, it can actually generate new science and technology.

It was a period of total stress that gave them the answer: a Total Environmental and Mental Simulator. A computer that could simulate or duplicate the mental processes of any actual or artificial being, and through simulated total environmental stimuli create a situation of maximum stress upon that entity. An incredible machine, against which Master and ally were powerless. No matter how much in intelligence potential Master or ally had, the TEMS always came up with a simulated being that was superior. It had no limiting factor as do the brains of living creatures. It could always be added to.

Carruthers had to blank out his mind. He fought his ship and he unleased the TEMS. Working overtime, that dreaded instrument began thinking and building weapons that the Star Kings had always feared. Now fighting for their lives, they unleashed their devil.

But then, as if they had set a trap, trillions of Shem globes closed in over the Star Kings. Surely it was the end of the Star Kings. They had at last met their match. But the TEMS had been unleashed. Untouched for generations because of the undreamed of methods of destruction that it could conceive, it was at last put to work. "Destroy those vessels," commanded Carruthers and instantly the TEMS was creating and destroying entire systems of logic and mathematics, creating and discarding scores of new sciences. Before the sensory apparatus of the Shem the Star King ships grew in firepower and defensive capabilities.

From Crown of Infinity, by John M. Faucette.
Published by Ace in 1968
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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Crown of Infinity
  More Ideas and Technology by John M. Faucette
  Tech news articles related to Crown of Infinity
  Tech news articles related to works by John M. Faucette

Total Environmental and Mental Simulator-related news articles:
  - Invention Machine Evolved By Genetic Programming
  - Robot Scientist Makes Autonomous Discovery
  - Automated Biology Explorer (ABE), Robot Scientist
  - Neural Net Discovers Antibiotic

Articles related to Artificial Intelligence
Lazy Lawyer's Trust In ChatGPT Misplaced
Can Artificial Intelligences Be Stopped?
Rockets To The Moon In The Style Of Miro And Goya
I Am Alarmed By Efforts To Teach AIs And Robots To Hate

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