ngs."

"Hey, that's great!" Dwindle said, brightening. "Why don't you try
making an IBM runout?"

"I did, Dwindle. Please let me finish? Our instructions call for finding
a person with a well-rounded education. More specifically, a person who
is capable of intelligently discussing and explaining some two dozen
major 'fields of knowledge.' Plus, of course, at least a passing
acquaintance with some one or two hundred minor fields of knowledge.

"So I set Mathematics into the IBM sorter. Mathematics is one of the
major fields of knowledge, you see."

"Yeh," Dwindle acknowledged.

"So I took the few million mathematicians' cards which I got--good
mathematicians and bad mathematicians, but at least people who can get
their decimals in the right place. I set the IBM sorter for Biology, and
ran the mathematicians' cards through. So I got several thousand
mathematician-biologists."

"That's pretty sharp!" Dwindle exclaimed with a twinkle. "Whoever
thought of that!"

"Please, Dwindle," Jones moaned, pressing his palms to his eyes. "Next I
sorted according to Geology. Three hundred cards came through. Three
hundred people in America who know their math, biology and geology!"

"That doesn't sound like so many to me," Dwindle said hesitantly, as if
wondering what there was to get so excited about.

"And of those three hundred, do you know how many understand, even
vaguely, Electronics? Twelve. And of those twelve, guess how many have
an adequate background in History and Anthropology? Much less an
understanding of eighteen other fields?"

"Not very many, I'll bet," Dwindle replied smartly.

"None! Not even one! I tried running the cards through in every order
imaginable. We've bred a race of specialists and there's not a truly
educated man among us!"

"Say, you know what I bet? Even if you did find a guy who's like what
all you said ..."

"Go ahead, Dwindle."

"... I bet he wouldn't even go up there to Ganymede. I sure wouldn't!
I'd be scared to death," Dwindle chattered, waving his finger. "How's he
gonna get back, even if he gets there O.K.? Couldn't anyone fool me with
a bunch of pretty talk; I know the government doesn't have a rocket that
could take off again after it got there. Gotta have launching pads and
computers and all that stuff. Government ever think about that?"

Jones held his head in anguish. "Dwindle, why don't you be a good boy
and run along to the snack bar for a coffee break? And bring me som