In sum, this mountain of data -- more than 350 gigabytes worth, not including the streaming audio and video -- is a replica of Bell's biological memory.

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Shortly after he arrived as chief executive officer in July 1993, he gave the go-ahead to develop a supercharged digital box to serve a new world of fully interactive video networks to be built by the regional Bell telephone companies, Time Warner and others.

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Mimicking conversation in a virtual room required the Bell Labs teams to process multiple incoming video and audio feeds and handle superfast 3-D.

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