Eddie did not answer for a minute. Then: "You start with one or two ... well, it's like this, Larry. I'm afraid it's dead. They grow exponentially. Figure out how much money you'd have at the end of a month if you started with just a penny and doubled your money every day. In just a little while, you'd have all the money in the world. Figure it out sometime. Things that grow exponentially, they just don't know when to quit. And your culture, here, it grew until the environment could no longer support it and all at once the food was eaten up and it died." "I ... see.... Something like that could just grow until it took over the whole world, couldn't it?" Again Eddie was silent for a moment. Then he rumpled his son's hair. "That's science fiction, Larry." * * * * * Later, while they were listening to FM, there was a news break reporting a fire out of control in South Los Angeles. "That's near Becky's, I'll bet," she said. "I better phone." The phone was still out of order. "I sure feel cut off without a phone." After an interlude of music, Lois said, "Larry wants to be an engineer, now. I guess after what you said, maybe that's a pretty good thing." Eddie looked up from his cigarette. "Why this all of a sudden?" "One of his teachers told him what you said--there's a growing engineering shortage." "I thought he wanted to be an astronaut." "You know Larry. That was last week. His teacher said we're not going to start up the space program again. It's too expensive. We just don't have the technical man-power and materials to spare." "We are in.... But these kids, young kids they're turning out--they aren't getting the education today. And if anything, I sometimes think it almost makes our jobs even worse, correcting their mistakes. I sometimes wonder where it's all going to stop." There was more news from the fire front. Fire fighters were having a very difficult time. Two water mains had broken and the pressure was dropping. The fire was reported to have been caused by the explosion of a gas main. Rising winds did not promise to abate until dawn. [Illustration] "I sure wish I could get through to Beck," Lois said. "Oh, I guess I told you, did I? Her sister has hypoglycemia, they found out. That's why she's been tired all the time." "Never heard of it." "Low blood sugar. It's caused by an overactive gland on the pancreas. And treatment is just the opposite of what you'd think, too. I'll bet you'd never guess. If you increase the amount of sugar in the diet, the gland becomes just that much more active to get rid of it and the hypoglycemia gets worse. It's what I'll bet you engineers call a feedback. Isn't that what you call it? Well ... the way doctors treat it is to _reduce_ the amount of sugar you eat. And after a little bit, the pancreas gets back its normal function, and the patient gets well. I told you you'd never guess!" After a long time, Eddie said, very softly, "Oh."