This chapter opens with a prologue by Jean-Jacques filippi, a French writer and artist. He is a fictional character who lives in Los Angeles, California, and is a member of the International Society for the Advancement of Mechaniks, a group of scientists and engineers who have developed a new generation of robots. In this prologue, he tells his readers that he is writing a story about a girl who is a part of a new class of robots called "humanoids" .