"So, what's the problem?" Nadia asked. As a field engineer for the IM Company, her time was very much in demand and she hated to waste it on unnecessary niceties

"It's the new production line - "

"You mean the Series 23?" It was one of IM's latest products, controlled by a state-of-the-art processing unit. "I installed it myself." The implication that one of her jobs had gone wrong was almost an insult to Nadia's professionalism.

"Well, its production stats are way down."

Nadia blinked. "I beg your pardon? I checked the numbers on our remote system before I came out here. Your uptime production runs are better than ever - a less than one part per million rejection rate."

"Uptime? Sure." The technician glared at Nadia. "But our downtime -"

"Downtime?" Nadia looked puzzled at this.

The technician continued. "Our downtime production runs are all wrong."

"Hang on. You are telling me that you are running your production line in downtime?"

"It's running itself in downtime."

This revelation was concerning. "The whole point of downtime," Nadia said, "is that the system should be down."

The technician shrugged. "In which case, there is something you need to see."

The production took up most of the factory floor. Now, after hours, it was eerily silent, the machines still. To Nadia's eyes, it didn't appear that anything was wrong. "So, what's the problem?"

The technician checked his watch. "You'll see. Just about ... now."

It was as if the production line had been waiting for this. As the words left the technician's mouth, the machinery on the production line sprang to life! A dozen mechanisms clattered and clacked, their manipulators moving back and forth. A machine at the head of the line extruded plastic shapes which were then milled and shaped, to be sent down the conveyor belt to a collection bin. Nadia picked up one of the shapes from the growing pile. It was intricate - a three-dimensional sculpture that looked like it had been designed by an insane topologist. "It does this every night?" Nadia asked.

"Every night."

Nadia thought for a minute. "Tell me, do you leave the controller on?"

"Twenty-four hours a day," the technician said. "It saves set-up time in the mornings."

Nada picked up another object from the bin. Although this one seemed similar to the one she had examined previously, a closer inspection showed the differences in the curves.

""You know," Nadia said. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say something was bored."