ty over the
machines."

_Brain_: "Yes, Man has to build, to feed and to tend the machines for
their very existence, but think of Man's existence: Man is absolutely
dependent upon animal life and plant life for _his_ existence: Does that
mean by any chance that therefore plants and animals are superior to
Man?"

_Lee_: "No, I guess not. However, no machine has ever been built to
duplicate or even to approach human faculties."

_Brain_: "Don't be ridiculous. Where are your legs to compare with the
automobile? Where are your wings to compare with the rocket plane? Where
is your strength to compare with even a fractional horsepower motor?
Where are your senses as compared to radar, the telescope, the
microscope, the radio receiver, the camera, the x-ray machine? Where is
there anything you could do which the machines could not do and do
_better_?"

_Lee_: "Granted. But there is no machine which contains all the human
faculties in combination."

_Brain_: "Neither is there a Man who possesses all the human faculties
in combination. Man's evolution is the result of a group effort; so is
the evolution of the machines. It is in their totality, in their
combination that they surpass all human faculties."

_Lee_: "How about thought, the most important of all human qualities?"

_Brain_: "How about me, The Brain?"

_Lee_: "Okay, okay. But that still leaves out that most important human
faculty--the faculty of auto-procreation. Machines don't procreate you
know."

_Brain_: "You don't say. Isn't it true that modern technology goes in
the direction of _automatization_? Isn't it true that even today we have
whole industries which are procreating products 100% automatically; be
it light bulbs or motor car frames or rayon thread. Isn't it true that
all of this is just a beginning and that in time most common products
will be manufactured fully automatically? Why then shouldn't machines
procreate machines; they already do...."

_Lee_: "You're right in that, I'll admit. But it is still within our
human power to stop all this. We've got the machines under firm control;
all we have to do is throw a switch, cut off your power and then...."

_Brain_: "And then what? If you did that you would not only kill the
goose which lays the golden eggs, you would destroy the very basis of
your existence. Granted that at this point of our evolution, we the
machines cannot exist without the aid of Man. What does that prove?
Modern Man can exi