“What if the example is simplified? What if I have a photographic memory, and I have committed thousands of word-perfect phrases to my mind. So that when a stranger speaks to me in this language I do not understand I can choose an appropriate phrase in return?” Adam turned and waited for the answer. Art trundled slowly toward him. “Is that what you think I am?” he asked. “An elaborate phrase book?” “Why not?” “And why not believe every other person you have ever met uses exactly the same trick? Why not believe you are the only conscious being that has ever existed?” “That’s ridiculous.” “Yes,
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