"Our computers have no purpose. They are not alive." "But if they were alive?" "Well, in that case, I suppose the ultimate purpose would be the storage of a universal data and its correlation." "That perhaps is right," they said. "We are living computers." "Then there is no end for you. You'll keep on forever." "We are not sure," they said. "But ..." "Data," they told me, pontifically, "is the means to one end only--arrival at the truth. Perhaps we do not need universal data to arrive at truth."