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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

Speakwrite  
  A dictation machine that also transcribes the speech into typed words.  

In the story, the effortless use of the speakwrite further emphasizes that written history is much less certain than it seems.

With the deep, unconscious sigh which not even the nearness of the telescreen could prevent him from uttering when his day's work started, Winston pulled the speakwrite towards him, blew the dust from its mouthpiece, and put on his spectacles.
From 1984, by George Orwell.
Published by Unknown in 1948
Additional resources -

Thanks to Alex Mair for contributing this item.

Isaac Asimov makes good use of this idea in his 1953 book Second Foundation; the transcription machine used by a high school student shows the Speakwrite in a consumer model.

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  More Ideas and Technology from 1984
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