Here we pass completely beyond any comparison
with nonsapience. This is not merely more consciousness, or more thinking;
it is thinking of a radically different kind. The nonsapient mind deals
exclusively with crude sensory material. The sapient mind translates sense
impressions into ideas, and then forms ideas of ideas, in ascending orders
of abstraction, almost without limit.

"This, finally, brings us to one of the recognized overt manifestations of
sapience. The sapient being is a symbol user. The nonsapient being cannot
symbolize, because the nonsapient mind is incapable of concepts beyond
mere sense images."

Ybarra drank some water, and twisted the dial of his reading screen with
the other hand.

"The sapient being," he continued, "can do one other thing. It is a
combination of the three abilities already enumerated, but combining them
creates something much greater than the mere sum of the parts. The sapient
being can imagine. He can conceive of something which has no existence
whatever in the sense-available world of reality, and then he can work and
plan toward making it a part of reality. He can not only imagine, but he
can also create."

He paused for a moment. "This is our definition of sapience. When we
encounter any being whose mentation includes these characteristics, we may
know him for a sapient brother. It is the considered opinion of all of us
that the beings called Fuzzies are such beings."

Jack hugged the small sapient one on his lap, and Little Fuzzy looked up
and murmured, "_He-inta?_"

"You're in, kid," he whispered. "You just joined the people."

Ybarra was saying, "They think consciously and continuously. We know that
by instrumental analysis of their electroencephalographic patterns, which
compare closely to those of an intelligent human child of ten. They think
in connected sequence; I invite consideration of all the different logical
steps involved in the invention, designing and making of their
prawn-killing weapons, and in the development of tools with which to make
them. We have abundant evidence of their ability to think beyond present
sense data, to associate, to generalize, to abstract and to symbolize.

"And above all, they can imagine, not only a new implement, but a new way
of life. We see this in the first human contact with the race which, I
submit, should be designated as _Fuzzy sapiens_. Little Fuzzy found a
strange and wonderful place in the forest, a place unlike any