AI makes everybody scared, but not in the way you think

THE year was 1987, and I was working in a magazine office in Marylebone where people communicated either by telephone or by shouting.

- Dylan Jones

One day, there was a commotion by the front door as two stout delivery men dressed in what seemed like identical disposable coveralls squeezed through the door carrying an enormous cardboard box. When they opened it, what was left on the floor was a gigantic machine that looked like a badly designed fridge.

It was a fax machine, the first one any of us had ever seen. Obviously, its arrival necessitated much fevered experimentation. One staff member greedily pushed a piece of A4 paper into it, but then suddenly looked confused.

“It’s still here,” she said, momentarily discombobulated by the fact her letter was still in the tray.

“It’s not matter transfer,” mumbled my friend Rod, rushing by to pick up his phone. Indeed, it wasn’t.