‘All ready to serve,’ says Victor.

An army of them. They look like perfect humans. I can imagine them behind a shop counter, or in a bank, or even a doctor’s surgery. We’re not going to have any trouble with this aspect of the revolution, I realise, because we already treat many of our fellow humans as little more than robots. We just transact.

I want to believe we don’t – that we treat each other as humans, but it’s not true. Despite our best intentions, we reserve our human affections for a small number of people. Of course. How else could we survive?

No wonder all those religions nag us about loving each other. And here is our pragmatic answer: replace all the people we treat as automatons with actual automatons.

‘They’ll do all the work,’ says Victor. ‘And we humans, who will be kept in tip-top condition by our nanobots, will live in idleness. What will we do all day?’

He winks at me. I suspect he’s going to answer his own question.

We go through another door, into yet another vast space.

It’s full of robots, but these are something else. The Workers all looked blandly efficient. Their faces, even in repose, looked helpful and attentive, but not attractive.

The ones in here are much more interesting. Each face is different. They vary in height, too. And skin colour. They’re all wearing stylish outfits. And by far the majority of them are women.

‘Are these Helpers?’ I ask.

‘No, they’re not Helpers,’ says Victor. ‘They’re Companions. Of a particular kind.’

‘And why so many women and so few men?’ I ask, and the question dies upon my lips, as it dawns on me what kind of companionship is on offer here. Exactly what I saw in Soho.

‘My God,’ I say, under my breath.

All my thoughts about treating other humans as less than human are now pressing down on me, and I feel sick. Of course. Here we are, in a world where women have never won the battle to make men see women as human, not as objects – not all men, not all the time, but too many, too often – and now, the logical pay-off. Give them robots for sex. Stepford Wives. Basic Pleasure Models. Of course. And for those women who want it, robot men with no doubt infinite stamina and an endless desire to please.

Victor approaches the front rank of these Companions. We go up close to one of them, while Victor fiddles about and inspects her.