“That’s wonderful,” giggled Frances. “Now I can pick something that will make an adorable nickname. How about Roland? Then I can call you Rolly.” He nodded and sat up while she giggled eagerly. He looked at his body. He seemed to know all about his body, yet he had never been conscious of it before, somehow. Translucent shorts and sandals fitted well to a tall, muscled form that he was proud to display to Frances. Did she like his body? That was the important thing. His eyes shifted back and forth from the woman to the man. Finally he said quietly, “We’ve got to come to it. What do you want me to do?” Berti’s sharply-ridged face puckered. “Rolly, you have a highly selective education, administered by us. But is it worth while? Science-progress is a maze, a labyrinth. And when you reach the end of the quest, the Minotaur always waits.” Fran’s voice interrupted seriously, black eyes shining. “We’ve given you most of the necessary information, but have omitted details. This the end of the Era of World Brain. It must be the end. It’s a ten-acre expanse of electronic brain which is the unescapable dictator of Worldcity. Absolute mechanical dictator. And there are a thousand plastico-mechanical creations which act positronically under World Brain to carry out its functions.” Berti looked sharply at him. “Roland! Doesn’t that seem terribly unjust to you. Monstrously inhuman?” “If it’s mechanical, obviously it’s inhuman,” said Roland. Berti said, “Human? Organic? What is life? Only chemistry and that’s all any machine is. No, by human I mean one’s emotional, thalamic reactions. Do you react negatively to a dictatorial machine that destroys all human characteristics?” “I’ll even hate it,” said Roland. He looked at Frances. “If you do.” * * * * * She smiled very pleasantly at him and he asked, “But why did humans create this mechanical dictator?” “We didn’t feed your brain much history. A waste of time,” she said. “Anyway, World Brain was a reaction to--to the Atomic War. That almost finished Earth life. And remaining humanity decided it couldn’t afford another. Human governmental agency is too unreliable. Even human dictatorship was, of course, variable. So all the greatest scientific minds pooled their brain cells and created World Brain. Now, human culture is fixed and static. For a human, that’s death. Nothing can change unless World Brain changes, and that’s impossible.” “Well,” said Roland. “Isn’t that what was wanted?” “It didn’t work out, Rolly. A billion people turned into stagnant automatons. When organisms stop moving and changing, they’re better off completely dead. Don’t you agree, Rolly?” “Yes,” said Roland. “So why not destroy World Brain?”