"May it please the Court.... The District Attorney agreed that in the event of victory I could ask Cyber IX an optional question. I would like to do so at this time."
Judge Anderson could only nod, and hope that his bulldog features were concealing his emotions. The D.A. kept his back rigidly to the television cameras.
Professor Neustadt strutted up to Cyber IX, flipped on the vocader switch and turned to the cameras.
"Since Cyber IX is essentially a scientific integrator and mathematical unit," he began pedantically, "I'll put my question in the Cyber's own framework. Had another Cyber been selected for this test, I would phrase my question differently."
He turned challengingly back to Cyber IX, paused for dramatic effect, and asked:
"What are the magnitudes of a dream?"
Cyber IX hummed and twinkled. The hum rose higher and higher. The lights flickered in weird, disjointed patterns, blurring before the eye.
Abruptly, the hum stopped. The lights dimmed, faded one by one.
The eternally calm, eternally pleasant voice of Cyber IX spoke from the vocader grill:
"Problem unsolved."