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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

Organic Superlubricant  
  Advanced lube that can "learn" how to be more effective.  

"Organic Superlube? Oh, it's great stuff, great stuff. You really have to keep an eye on it, though - it'll try and slide away from you the first chance it gets.
-T. M. Morgan-Reilly, Morgan Metagenics"
Technovelgy from Alpha Centauri, by Sid Meier.
Published by Fraxis Games in 1999
Additional resources -

The game provides details:

"Machines with moving parts have long been subject to wear and tear as the parts grind against one another. On Earth, traditional lubricants such as oil were used to minimize these effects. Planet lacks large reserves of such materials, until the invention of Synthetic Fossil Fuels. With Organic Superlubricant, scientists can create lubricating compounds that act like simple life forms, seeking out areas where they do the most good."

Thanks to Gatomon41 for sending in this complete entry.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Alpha Centauri
  More Ideas and Technology by Sid Meier
  Tech news articles related to Alpha Centauri
  Tech news articles related to works by Sid Meier

Articles related to Material
Goldene - A Two-Dimensional Sheet Of Gold One Atom Thick
GNoME AI From DeepMind Invents Millions Of New Materials
Omniphobic Liquid-like Surfaces And de Camp's Telelubricator (1940)
MXenes - Atomic-Thin Metal Sheets Now Easier To Make

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