Challenge #01624-D163: Brass Goggles

[Person #1]: Oh dear, [Designation] just went from automaton to a child that just did something new. Progress.

[Person #2]: And a complication for [Name]. Better to have an absolutely loyal Automaton than someone who may have a conscience. -- RecklessPrudence

Colonel Peter A. Walter's design for the Babbage Brain seemed sound on paper, but things that worked on paper had a way of leaving him without eyebrows for a few days. Now that he'd built it and installed the thing inside the copper skull, he simply had to test it and its learning algorithms.

He hooked it up to the power core and fed the dictionary punch-cards through its processors. The resulting paroxysms were disturbing to watch and took hours of cranking. Next time, he would have a motorised feeder. Finally, at the stroke of noon, the mechanical head chirped a slightly more complicated tune in response to the clocks. It blinked. Its eyes tracked a moving object. It seemed wont to look everywhere around it.

Peter held up the rabbit he kept for testing his Blue Matter on. "Recognise. What is it?"

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