“It just creates and then fulfills a series of needs.”
“That’s all it does?”
“Yip.”
“So why is it so sensitive? It’s not like it’s conscious.”
“It has a degree of choice but not nearly to the same extent as a certain other machine.”
“How do you mean?”
“It creates lists.”
“Lists?”
“Yes, lists. It orders the things it wants to do and then does them, in order of what it defines as most important to it.”
“It doesn’t sound terribly impressive.”
“It is the most important machine here. In fact, it creates importance. It decides whether or not you consider the taste of something more important than the effect of it or whether the feeling of a song is more important than how tired your legs are. It decides whether or not it’s more important to you to spend time with the ones you love than it is to be at work. It decides whether or not it’s more important to you to pay your bills than do the things you’d rather be doing.”
“Bloody hell.”
“You know what the worst part is?”
“What?”
“This isn’t the first time I’ve been called down here to fix it.”
“It breaks often?”
“Not often. But it does break. I’ve seen ones that have broken too often or too much. Held together with bits of tape and string. A great sheet of nothing wrapped around, just so they can hold it together.”
“Could that happen to this one?”
“It has the words ‘Anything Can And Quite Often Does Happen.’ inscribed across the front. What do you think?”
“I think it’s insane.”
“Correct.”
