“I’m with you so far. But I don’t see what is expert about this voxfax system. It doesn’t seem to be any different from a word processing system.”

“But it is — and you have put your finger on the basic difference. When I type the letters D-O-G into an ordinary word processor, it simply records mem in memory. It may move them around, from line to line, stretch them out to fit a justified line or type them out when so instructed — but it is really just inflexibly following unchanging instructions. However, your languaphone and your voxfax program are teaching themselves. When either of them makes a mistake it discards the mistake, then tries something else — and remembers what it has done. This is a first step in the right direction. It is a self-correcting learning program.”

“Then this is your new artificial intelligence?”

“No, this is only a small step that was made some years ago. The answer to developing true artificial intelligence is something completely different.”

“What is it?”

Brian smiled at the boldness of the question. “It is not that easy to explain — but I can show you what I have done. My lab is right down here.”

He led the way through the connected laboratories. It all appeared very unimpressive to Beckworth, just a series of computers and terminals. Not for the first time he was more than glad to be at the business end to this enterprise. Much of the apparatus was turned on and running, though unattended. As they passed a bench mounted with a large TV screen he stopped dead.

“Good God! Is that a three-dimensional TV picture?”

“It is,” McCrory said, turning his back on the screen and frowning unhappily. “But I wouldn’t look at it for too long if I were you.”

“Why not? This will revolutionize the TV business, give us a world lead…” He rubbed his thumb along his forehead, realizing that one of his very rare headaches was coming on.