Another argument in favor of it as a subject was the fact that if Urei really could exist without his body, it would be absurd to attempt his physical destruction. On the face of it, yes. There was a nice thought in connection with that which he would have to avoid, however. For Benton fully intended to accomplish that destruction, even if Urei _could_ exist as a disembodied intelligence. It would be a good gamble that Urei would lose interest in controlling mankind if he lacked the direct association afforded by the daily use of his electronic facilities in solving man's problems. That was a gamble, of course, but actually Benton gave it little consideration, for the simple reason that he didn't believe that Urei could so exist. The machine had tried to put the idea over as a bluff, to deter him from planning the very thing he intended to accomplish. The very conception was absurd; was there any evidence that thought could exist, other than as a function of matter? And a very specialized form of matter at that? None, of course--and while lack of evidence didn't absolutely prove impossibility, neither could he accept such a concept without some shred of evidence. Benton's mind could soar mightily within the fabric of his experience, but he refused to let it wander in the realm of the occult. And since he must needs do something about the situation, Benton couldn't let himself be stymied by the vague possibility that his efforts were futile. 4 Dr. Albie greeted him with the polite smile which was his concession to convention. Then he made the suggestion that Benton had foreseen but was half afraid wouldn't come. "We're pretty well caught up, in spite of our experimenting yesterday," he said. "No new solutions requested from the government, and the others are in no hurry. Want to get at those new circuits today?" Benton shrugged. "Might as well," he said. "How long do you think we'll have, before somebody pops up with a high-priority problem to be worked?" Dr. Albie didn't know, of course. "What's the difference? We'll be leaving half the circuits open, anyway, to handle routine stuff; we can always commandeer a few if something pops up." "I wasn't thinking of that," Benton said. "I've done a lot of preliminary work on the circuits and as I see it, we don't want to stop before we finish. It can't be done a little at a time, you know; entire circuits will have to be ripped out and the new stuff installed. Once we start, we can't leave it in the middle without immobilizing half the control panel until we get back to it. There's too much inter-relation between the circuits to prevent that." Albie nodded. "I'd thought of that," he said. "I've planned to finish, once we start. And since you have the equations at your fingertips, I'm putting you in complete charge of the change-over. How many men will you need?" * * * * *