She said, “There, next to you, is the voco-typer. I thought father explained it to you.”

“Briefly. You talk into it and it types up what you say.”

“There’s more to it. I’m continually surprised, Jule, at your lack of knowledge of what was developing back in the 1960s and ’70s, right under your nose. Most of what we have now in technological developments go back to your era, though I acknowledge it takes time—less so now than before—to bring a new breakthrough into widespread use. For instance, the basic facts of nuclear fission were known at least a decade before Einstein wrote President Roosevelt that an atomic bomb was possible:”

“What in the dickens has this to do with my taking notes with my stylo?” Julian asked.

“I was leading up to the fact that even in your day, the voco-typer, the computer data banks, and the computer translators were already in embryo.”

“Go on.”

She indicated the voco-typer that sat to one side of him on the desk. “They’ve all been amalgamated. You speak your notes into the voco-typer. It is connected to the data banks; your notes are recorded and you can check back on them any time you wish. And, if you desired, you could record your notes in English now, and, after your Interlingua becomes more fluent, have your notes played back to you in that language—or any other language, for that matter.”

“You mean that anyone at all can put anything he wants into the International Data Banks?”

“Of course. No problem. You see, all you could possibly write in your whole lifetime can be recorded on a disk no larger than your little fingernail, and about as thick.”

“Well, how long do they keep the record?”

“Forever. Fifty years from now, you might have some reason to check back on some of the notes you take today. They’ll be on file. Then there are other aspects. Suppose, a century or two from now, some biographer wishes to check back on your notes in order to do your life. There they are. Can you imagine how some historian in your time would have loved to have the notes of, say, Thomas Jefferson—made while he was composing the Declaration of Independence? I suggest that you have Information send you its material on filing and cross references. Speeds things up so that you’ll be able to check back more easily.”