he said after a pause. "I
haven't explained yet, have I? It's very simple. Would you be willing to
take part in a valuable socio-cultural experiment for the benefit of all
mankind?"

"No," Martin said.

"But you don't know what it is yet," the robot said plaintively. "You'll
be the only one to refuse, after I've explained everything thoroughly.
By the way, can you understand me all right?"

Martin laughed hollowly. "Natch," he said.

"Good," the robot said, relieved. "That may be one trouble with my
memory. I had to record so many languages before I could temporalize.
Sanskrit's very simple, but medieval Russian's confusing, and as for
Uighur--however! The purpose of this experiment is to promote the most
successful pro-survival relationship between man and his environment.
Instant adaptation is what we're aiming at, and we hope to get it by
minimizing the differential between individual and environment. In other
words, the right reaction at the right time. Understand?"

"Of course not," Martin said. "What nonsense you talk."

"There are," the robot said rather wearily, "only a limited number of
character matrices possible, depending first on the arrangement of the
genes within the chromosomes, and later upon environmental additions.
Since environments tend to repeat--like societies, you know--an
organizational pattern isn't hard to lay out, along the Kaldekooz
time-scale. You follow me so far?"

"By the Kaldekooz time-scale, yes," Martin said.

"I was always lucid," the robot remarked a little vainly, nourishing a
swirl of red ribbon.

"Keep that thing away from me," Martin complained. "Drunk I may be, but
I have no intention of sticking my neck out that far."

"Of course you'll do it," the robot said firmly. "Nobody's ever refused
yet. And don't bicker with me or you'll get me confused and I'll have to
take another jolt of voltage. Then there's no telling how confused I'll
be. My memory gives me enough trouble when I temporalize. Time-travel
always raises the synaptic delay threshold, but the trouble is it's so
variable. That's why I got you mixed up with Ivan at first. But I don't
visit him till after I've seen you--I'm running the test
chronologically, and nineteen-fifty-two comes before fifteen-seventy, of
course."

"It doesn't," Martin said, tilting the glass to his lips. "Not even in
Hollywood does nineteen-fifty-two come before fifteen-seventy."

"I'm using the Kaldekooz time-scale," the robot ex