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"Fuzzy logic tries to get machines to think like people do, with inexact fuzzy terms."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Neutron Disruption Blaster | ||
| Beam pistol which splits neutrons into protons and electrons, releasing enormous energy. |
In the "Paratime" series by Horace Beam Piper(1904-1964), this was used by the First Level civilization. Since ours is Fourth Level, hopefully we won't be making one any time soon.
| "...Verkan Vall aimed the blaster and squeezed. In a spot less than a millimeter in diameter on the crocodile idol's side, a certain number of neutrons in the atomic structure of the stone from which it was carved broke apart, becoming in effect atoms of hydrogen. With a flash and a bang, the idol burst and vanished. |
| Technovelgy from The Complete Paratime,
by H. Beam Piper. Published by Astounding Fiction in 1951 Additional resources -
|
Largely self-educated, H. Beam Piper created the fascinatingly complex "Paratime" alternate history world, with levels and sublevels of varying technological advancement, based on the premise of Earth being colonized by Martians 100,000 years ago.
Compare to the blaster from When the Green Star Waned (1925) by Nictzin Dyalhis, the stationary automatic blaster from Red Planet (1949) by Robert Heinlein and the meteor blasters from First Contact (1945), by Murray Leinster.
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'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
