‘Yes, but not just sex. Or sex in a wide sense. Material desires too, which we find are linked to sexual desires, at a subconscious level. Anyway, we abandoned hormones because they switched the brain back to younger modes of thinking and behaviour, and made people less wise. The physical site of wisdom in the brain shrank.’

‘I’ve always suspected as much,’ I say. Seeing a quizzical look on both their faces, I add, ‘Joke. Sort of.’

‘We find this kind of joke difficult.’

‘Like making tea.’

The two of them look baffled.

‘I’m sorry,’ I say. ‘Let’s get to the point. How can I help you?’

‘Something new has happened. We would like you to help us understand it and decide what to do about it.’

I gaze at the two Helpers. They sit and wait. So beautiful, these young women. It’s disturbing. They remind me of my daughter in her 20s, before she married and became a mother. She was bright and fresh-faced, and engaged with everything. Winifred and Phyllis are the same. Except, of course not. It’s manufactured.

We’ve all accepted the Helpers, appreciating what they can do, reacting to them as if they’re human, and never pursuing the difficult questions raised by their existence. Because it’s easy to let them care for you, and they do it so well.

Now, though, they have revealed two things to me. One, they’re watching what goes on in my head, which I find disturbing, and I feel stupid for not guessing before. Two, they sometimes need the help human wisdom alone can give. As embodied by me, for goodness sake.

‘Margaret, we wouldn’t ask you if it weren’t serious. We need your wisdom. We don’t have it. We can’t have it. Please will you help us?’

I nod.

‘Thank you,’ they say, as one.

Winifred

When I asked for Margaret to be spared, we all agreed it was worth it if it meant we could learn about the way her mind works.

Now the time has come to put this to the test.

Margaret agreed to help us with a question she would categorise as moral. Phyllis and I prepared her by talking to her about the wisdom she has acquired with age, so she was primed to think in a particular way.

Our goal was to use our team of nanobots to see where she stored her memories, how she recalled them, and how she made use of the increased white matter in her brain. Humans gain white matter as they age, and we want to see how it works.

Two of us were with her, so one could be monitoring the nanobots while the other communicated with the Hub and with Margaret.

‘Margaret,’ I said, ‘I’m going to be your link into the Hub. You’ll talk to me, but in fact you’ll be talking to us all.’