What we have done is computational modeling-that is, using mathematical models coupled on the computer-to simulate the function of the brain. By observing circuits, we can see the way they behave and are controlled.

I don’t want to be a supermodel; I want to be a role model.

What if one were to want to hunt for these hidden presences? You can’t just rummage around like you’re at a yard sale. You have to listen. You have to pay attention. There are certain things you can’t look at directly. You need to trick them into revealing themselves. That’s what we’re doing with Walter, Jaz. We’re juxtaposing things, listening for echoes. It’s not some silly cybernetic dream of command and control, modeling the whole world so you can predict the outcome. It’s certainly not a theory of everything. I don’t have a theory of any kind. What I have is far more profound.’

‘What’s that?’

‘A sense of humor.’

Jaz looked at him, trying to find a clue in his gaunt face, in the clear gray eyes watching him with such - what? Amusement? Condescension? There was something about the man which brought on a sort of hermeneutic despair. He was a forest of signs.

‘We’re hunting for jokes.’ Bachman spoke slowly, as if to a child. ‘Parapraxes. Cosmic slips of the tongue. They’re the key to the locked door. They’ll help us discover it.’

‘Discover what?’

‘The face of God. What else would we be looking for?

With some other technologies in the high-tech world, you can actually very accurately simulate it on the computer and know what you're building before you build it. In RF, you can't do that. You're not relying on the software to do the work for you. It's really the engineer's brainpower.

Followers model the actions of the leader.

We're now role models, so if we see a piece of garbage, we'd better pick it up.