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"The wealth of the universe is all over your head. We need to take command of the solar system to gain that wealth..."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Meson Filter | ||
| Provides robots with the ability to tell the difference between jokes that provide a chuckle and jokes that provide a belly laugh. |
Lester the Jester decides to test his new robot comedian Rupert.
| "Hey, Rupert, tell me a joke."
Rupert's mouth opened. His voice clacked out, rising and falling like a sine wave. "On what subject, sir?" The Rholg's mechanic leaned across his flat purple chest. "That's another gimmick - a meson filter. You said you wanted him to be able to distinguish between laugh-power in different gags so he could fit them to the audience. And price was no object. That's all you have to tell a tech. They knocked themselves out developing a gadget to do the job just right..." |
| From The Jester,
by William Tenn. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1951 Additional resources -
|
Rupert the robot comedian is also a very early example of a machine that is able to laugh - in this case, at his own jokes:
"That's another bug the techs didn't have time to clean up. Comes from the meson filter. Near as we can figure out it's what they call an aftereffect of his capacity to distinguish between gags that are partly funny and gags that are very funny. Electronic differentiation of the grotesque, as it says in the specifications - in man, a sense of humor. 'Course in a robot, it only means there's a kink in the exhaust."
The robot, standing perfectly immobile, was clacking wildly, grinding his gears and pinging his wires as if he were coming apart.
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