The Holy Machine

10

Back at the apartment Ruth was having one of her bright and cheerful evenings. She had been busy with cooking and domestic tasks. She was full of brittle chatter.

‘I saved a steak for you George. Do you want it? This will amuse you. We’ve got a new receptionist at the lab. She’s a syntec. I guess the professor thought we needed to have an example of our products.’ (Ruth worked in a laboratory where they cloned living tissue). ‘She really is totally indistinguishable from a human being. In fact the professor did a little experiment. He actually introduced her as if she was a real person and we were all fooled. It was really extraordinary! I wonder how they manage to programme in all those expressions and gestures and tones of voice so accurately?’

I poured myself a large drink. I didn’t know what I was feeling. I was shaken and rather appalled by what had happened earlier with Lucy. But I knew I would soon go there again.

‘They don’t programme every muscle movement individually,’ I said, quoting the TV programme which had first shown me Lucy. ‘It’s more like making a video. They get actors to perform a repertoire of gestures and expressions, then make a copy. It changes gradually as the SE loops throw in small random variations…’

The alcohol hit my bloodstream. I was suddenly enormously hungry. I told Charlie to heat up the steak.

‘It’s only when you see her trying to pick up a pencil or something like that you can see, you know, that slight clumsiness that robots have,’ Ruth said, following behind me, ‘Do you know what I mean? Like Shirley? But her skin is perfect. I wouldn’t mind skin like that myself. And she’s very pretty. The professor can’t take his eyes off her…’

I turned on the TV, loudly. Big blasphemy trials were going on in Germany. There was talk there of bringing back the death penalty by burning.

The old X3 brought me in my steak.