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"We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders. They're watching their feet: provable mistakes are bad for them. We're looking as far ahead as we can, and we don't get penalized for mistakes."
- Larry Niven

Positronic Motor  
  A combination of motor and brain; an engine with a cerebellum and a carburetor.  

Gellhorn's automatobus was still standing outside the garage. I was forced in. Gellhorn jumped in after me, locking the doors.

He said, "All right, now. We'll talk sense."

I was rubbing my arm, trying to get life back into it, and even as I did I was automatically and without any conscious effort studying the control board of the bus.

I said, "This is a rebuilt job."

"So?" he said caustically. "It's a sample of my work. I picked up a discarded chassis, found a brain I could use and spliced me a private bus. What of it?" I tore at the repair panel, forcing it aside.

He said, "What the hell. Get away from that." The side of his palm came down numbingly on my left shoulder.

I struggled with him. "I don't want to do this bus any harm. What kind of a person do you think I am? I just want to take a look at some of the motor connections."

It didn't take much of a look. I was boiling when I turned to him. I said, "You're a hound and a bastard. You had no right installing this motor yourself. Why didn't you get a robotics man?"

He said, "Do I look crazy?"

"Even if it was a stolen motor, you had no right to treat it so. I wouldn't treat a man the way you treated that motor. Solder, tape, and pinch clamps! It's brutal!"

"It works, doesn't it?"

"Sure it works, but it must be hell for the bus. You could live with migraine headaches and acute arthritis, but it wouldn't be much of a life. This car is suffering."

From Sally, by Isaac Asimov.
Published by Fantastic in 1953
Additional resources -

See also the entry for positronic brain from Asimov's 1941 story Reason.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Sally
  More Ideas and Technology by Isaac Asimov
  Tech news articles related to Sally
  Tech news articles related to works by Isaac Asimov

Positronic Motor-related news articles:
  - Pegasus, Nvidia Supercomputer For Autonomous Driving

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Lazy Lawyer's Trust In ChatGPT Misplaced
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I Am Alarmed By Efforts To Teach AIs And Robots To Hate

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