A floating corpse drifts through an antigravity nightclub, a welcome job for Epoch the electronic investigator. Enlisted to determine whether the cause was antigravity toxicity, drug overdose, or murder, Epoch's investigational skills improve exponentially. But while Epoch investigates, his human colleagues find themselves increasingly addicted to hallucinations induced by virtual reality tablets. And as if that wasn't enough of a distraction, the humans begin to have doubts about their robot friend. Throughout the story, they debate the philosophical questions of the day, resolving several of them. What is the purpose of artificial intelligence? Is a Turing Test a sufficient evaluation of artificial intelligence, and would Epoch pass? And what does all of this have to do with Fermi's paradox? Find out as author D. James Smith investigates topics in artificial intelligence.