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"Writing about the future, I have a vested interest in there being a future for me to write about."
- John Brunner
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| Computer Humorist | ||
| A computer acquires the ability to tell original jokes. |
Mike (short for Mycroft Holmes) is the Lunar Authority mainframe computer.
| MIke... was the weirdest mixture of unsophisticated baby and wise old man. No instincts (well, don't think he could have had), no inborn traits, no human rearing, no experience in human sense - and more stored data than a platoon of geniuses.
"Jokes?" he asked. "Let's hear one." "Why is a laser beam like goldfish?" Mike knew about lasers but where would he have seen goldfish? Oh, he had undoubtedly seen flicks of them and, were I foolish enough to ask, could spew forth thousands of words. "I give up." His lights rippled. "Because neither one can whistle." I groaned. "Walked into that. Anyhow, you could probably rig a laser beam to whistle." He answered quickly, "Yes. In response to an action program. Then it's not funny?" "Oh, I didn't say that. Not half bad. Where did you hear it?" "I made it up." Voice sounded shy. "You did?" "Yes. I took all the riddles I have, three thousand two hundred seven, and analyzed them. I used the result for random synthesis and that came out. Is it really funny?" "Well... As funny as a riddle ever is. I've heard worse." |
| Technovelgy from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by GP Putnam in 1966 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the meson filter from The Jester (1951), by William Tenn.
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'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'
'...a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell.'
'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'
'She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew about whatever it was that she was playing with on her screen.'
'Does thinking you're the last sane man on the face of the Earth make you crazy?'
