Q. We are quite aware of that. A. I just thought I'd remind you. Q. Unnecessary. A. That's what men usually say; they dislike being reminded. Am I to stop making trips? Q. That will be decided in the light of the rest of your report. I may tell you now that there will probably be no further trips. You will be reabsorbed into the Unity. A. I see. I remember you said the same thing after I reported on the time they hanged Haman. You seemed to side with him. Anyway, if I get reabsorbed, it won't be a Unity any more--not the way things are going. Q. You overrate yourself. Contact with Mankind has changed you. A. Oh, it has! I've changed them a bit, but it's the principle of uncertainty again: it changes me, too. Q. The Unity is greater than its parts. A. Not if it's infinite, the way you say it is. You know, it's a funny thing, but I've never been quite clear just what's behind all this decision you talk about. What is our purpose? Q. Does a stone have a purpose when it falls? A. I'm not talking about values. What are the alternatives you imply in the decision? Q. There are three. We destroy them; we absorb them; we ignore them. A. I'm afraid they can't be ignored. Q. Why not? A. It's too late. The Unity should have started ignoring them right at the beginning--we are already changed. And if they are absorbed, we shall be still more changed. Q. _They_ will be changed. The Unity is eternal and-- A. You ought to talk to a man called Heisenberg. He called it the inexactitude principle, but it's the same thing. For example, men are always going around asking each other questions; they call it taking a poll, only when you try to find out that way what people are thinking, you change them. Or anthropology--when you study a tribe, you alter its way of life. Furthermore, it alters yours. Q. It would appear that you have lost your sense of objectivity. A. That's the way my last husband talks. There is no such thing. It's a strange fact, but it seems that the mathematicians are the only ones who have a glimmering of the truth--they and the physicists. I was beginning to think that mankind as a whole was progressing quite nicely. Q. I thought you said they were. It seems you're never satisfied.