The Amber Fingertips

A robotics laboratory in Palo Alto in late afternoon, low golden sunlight across a long white laminate bench, on it a long box of blue anodised aluminium nearly ninety centimetres long on a bare aluminium rail, a small blank brass plate at its front, many thin brown cable sheaths running from the box to a blue mechanical hand on an L-shaped blue stand, three slender fingers with round joint discs, two above at the sides and one below, their amber rubber tips gently holding a raw white egg, grey connectors along the back, every surface plain and unmarked, a hand in a rolled denim sleeve easing a cable into a connector.