"Sure. But you haven't been able to pinpoint the Nipe's activities that easily yet, have you?" Stanton asked. "Ah, no," said Yoritomo. "Not at all. That was merely an analogy, and we must not make the mistake of carrying an analogy too far. The more intelligent a creature is, the greater, in general, is its scope of action. The Nipe is far from being so simple as a monkey or a hamster. On the other hand--" He smiled widely, showing bright, white teeth. "--he is not so bright as a human being." "_What?_" Stanton looked at him skeptically. "I wouldn't say he was exactly stupid, George. What about all those prize gadgets of his?" He blinked. "Wipe the sweat off my forehead, will you? It's running into my eyes." Dr. Yoritomo wiped with the towel as he continued. "Ah, yes. He is quite capable in that respect, my friend. Quite capable. That is because of his great memory--at once his finest asset and his greatest curse." He draped the towel around Stanton's head again and stepped back, his face unsmiling. "Imagine having a near-perfect memory, Bart." Stanton's jaw muscles tightened a little before he spoke. "I think I'd like it," he said. Yoritomo shrugged slightly. "Perhaps you would. But it would most certainly not be the asset you think. Look at it very soberly, my friend. "The most difficult teaching job in the world is the attempt to teach an organism something that that organism already knows. True? Yes. If a man already knows the shape of the Earth, it will do you no good to teach him. If he _knows_, for example, that the Earth is flat, but round like a pancake, your contention that it is round like a ball will make no impression upon his mind whatever. He _knows_, you see. He _knows_. "Now. Imagine a race with a perfect memory--a memory that never fades. A memory in which each bit of data is as bright and as fresh as the moment it was imprinted, and as readily available as the data stored in a robot's mind. It is, in effect, a robotic memory. "If you put false data into the memory banks of a mathematical computer--such as telling it that the square of two is five--you cannot correct that error simply by telling it the true fact that the square of two is four. No. First you must remove the erroneous data. Not so?" "Agreed," Stanton said. "Very good. Then let us look at the Nipe race, wherever it was spawned in this universe. Let us look at the race a long time back--way back when they first became _Nipe sapiens_. Back when they first developed a true language. Each little Nipe child, as it is born or hatched or budded--whatever it is they do--is taught as rapidly as possible all the things it must know in order to survive. And once a little Nipelet is taught a thing, it _knows_. That knowledge is there, and it is permanent, and it can be brought instantly to the fore. And if it is taught a falsehood, then it cannot be taught the truth. You see?"