t
vaguely, some billions of years ago, when it was inhabited by giant
white apes. Or--oh, now I remember. It's an encysted medieval survival,
isn't it?"

Martin nodded.

"So is this movie studio," the robot said. "Your trouble is that you've
run up against somebody who's got a better optimum ecological adjustment
than you have. That's it. This studio environment is just emerging from
medievalism, so it can easily slip back into that plenum when an optimum
medievalist exerts pressure. Such types caused the Dark Ages. Well,
you'd better change your environment to a neo-technological one, where
the Disraeli matrix can be successfully pro-survival. In your era, only
a few archaic social-encystments like this studio are feudalistic, so go
somewhere else. It takes a feudalist to match a feudalist."

"But I can't go somewhere else," Martin complained. "Not without my
contract release. I was supposed to pick it up tonight, but St. Cyr
found out what was happening, and he'll throw a monkey-wrench in the
works if he has to knock me out again to do it. I'm due at Watt's place
now, but St. Cyr's already there--"

"Spare me the trivia," the robot said, raising his hand. "As for this
St. Cyr, if he's a medieval character-type, obviously he'll knuckle
under only to a stronger man of his own kind."

"How would Disraeli have handled this?" Martin demanded.

"Disraeli would never have got into such a situation in the first
place," the robot said unhelpfully. "The ecologizer can give you the
ideal ecological differential, but only for your own type, because
otherwise it wouldn't be your optimum. Disraeli would have been a
failure in Russia in Ivan's time."

"Would you mind clarifying that?" Martin asked thoughtfully.

"Certainly," the robot said with great rapidity. "It all depends on the
threshold-response-time of the memory-circuits in the brain, if you
assume the identity of the basic chromosome-pattern. The strength of
neuronic activation varies in inverse proportion to the quantative
memory factor. Only actual experience could give you Disraeli's
memories, but your reactivity-thresholds have been altered until
perception and emotional-indices approximate the Disraeli ratio."

"Oh," Martin said. "But how would _you_, say, assert yourself against a
medieval steam-shovel?"

"By plugging my demountable brain into a larger steam-shovel," ENIAC
told him.

* * * * *

Martin seemed pensive.