Apt reference to Burroughs, as he and Bowie ended up meeting in the early/mid '70s, and Bowie employed the cut-up technique somewhat often on his albums afterwards (starting with Diamond Dogs, if I'm not mistaken). So the Verbasizer was essentially Bowie's attempt to modernize a creative process he was already very fond of.
Bowie would have been ~12yo.
[0] https://www.languageisavirus.com/creative-writing-techniques...