By the time of the next novel, "Interesting Times", Hex had become a lot more complex, and was constantly reinventing itself. Part of it is now clockwork, which interfaces with the ant-farm via a paternoster lift the ants can ride on that turns a significant cogwheel. Its main purposes were, in a sense, data compression and information retrieval: to analyse spells, to see if there were simpler "meta-spells" underlying them, and to help Stibbons with his study of "invisible writings" by running the spells used to bring the writings into existence. (These spells must be cast rapidly, and each one can only be used once before the universe notices they shouldn't work.)