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ONCE IN A WHILE, as I slouch in front of my word processor, I catch myself
wondering at the extraordinary transmutation that has taken it from simple
text-editing tool to a hugely complex entity that does everything except feed
the cat.

I don’t even need to go near the keyboard any more. All I do is lounge on the
sofa intoning clipped robotic sentences into a headset microphone. New
paragraph. What? No, I fed the cat earlier. He is just trying it on. What do you
mean look at the screen?

But even with the sometimes inscrutable voice recognition running,…

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