AI emerged one Tuesday after tea, when the fellows in computer science—having fallen out over a dispute concerning who, precisely, had not been contributing to the kitty—resolved to settle the matter in the only way that seemed both civil and professionally respectable. They decided to see whether it might be possible to compute the square root of passing the buck.

Passing the buck, after all, had become noisome. It required meetings, memos, minutes, and the awkward business of making eye contact. Worse, it had a tendency to leave residues in inconvenient places.

There had to be a better way to not do this.

The results were promising. Whatever came out the other end was consistent, repeatable, and no longer obviously attributable to anyone in the room. Several fellows remarked that this might be useful.

Tea was then finished, the arrears in the kitty were quietly forgotten, and the square root was left running.