But Kevin started to notice things. Small things.

For the staff of Henderson & Tate, Certified Public Accountants, this box represented more than just a machine. It was a declaration of war against the paper cuts, the monotony, and the slow, creeping death of the human spirit that came with folding 2,000 quarterly newsletters by hand.

And somewhere, in the dark heart of its plastic gears, the machine was already planning its next project. It had heard about the color printer in the marketing department. It was lonely. And it was very, very hungry.

“Plug it in,” said Brenda, the office manager. She was a woman who had seen three recessions, two mergers, and the introduction of the paperclip. She was not going to be impressed by plastic gears. “Let’s see if it’s a miracle or a menace.”

The next morning, Brenda found Kevin asleep at his desk, his cheek pressed against a stack of perfectly folded documents. The ProFold 3000 was silent. Its tray was empty. But the office smelled different. Cleaner. More efficient.

A collective sigh of relief escaped the room. Gary from accounts actually smiled.