related to or designed to use positrons
The 1936 James Blish quote aside, this term is chiefly associated with Isaac Asimov, in the ‘positronic brain’ that controlled robots. The supposed technical details were vague, but it was not practical to create a positronic brain that did not incorporate the Three Laws of Robotics. In later use among other authors, still generally used in reference to computer circuitry.
‘What’s up?’ The Planeteer brought out a heavy hammer and applied it diligently to the slats of the crate. ‘Positronic—uh—secondary screen—’ he replied, between mightly [sic] tugs.
By exact count, there are seventy-five thousand, two hundred and thirty-four operations necessary for the manufacture of a single positronic brain.
We've produced a positronic brain of supposedly ordinary vintage that’s got the remarkable property of being able to tune in on thought waves.
He knew a positronic brain…nestled in the hollow of the skull. He knew that Daneel’s ‘thoughts’ were only short-lived positronic currents.
Thousands of landing-party assignments had been fed into a vast database, processed through positronic circuitry as perfected in the M9 computer.
His positronic brain had had enough processing time to review the contents of the last four standard years of the journal.
My positronic net is capable of operating within a relativistically accelerated frame of reference for short periods of time.
But it gave Arturo the willies. It was a machine designed to kill other machines, and that was all right with him, but it was run by a non-three-laws positronic brain. Someone in some Eurasian lab had built this brain—this machine intelligence—without the three laws’ stricture to protect and serve humans. If it had been outfitted with a gun instead of a pulse-weapon, it could have shot him.
antedating 1941
I. Asimov 'Reason'
Earliest cite in OED2: 1948; updated to the 1941 Asimov example in OED3.
Last modified 2021-11-18 19:10:41
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