Roland was cold. He wanted to rest.

Roland scarcely heard the man. He was cold. He was tired.

“We’ve developed the physiological relation between the nervous system and the consciousness. Instinctualism, a high degree of predictability—but then your human brain wouldn’t understand.”

Roland sank to his knees. He dropped his head in his folded arms.

“Let’s go,” said the woman. “Leave it here. It’ll die soon.”

“Just a minute, Fran. Don’t you find this interesting? This creation of grids, filaments, plates, vacuums, is probably the last genuine human type we’ll see—that’s sane. And we made it!”

She sighed resignedly. “It probably wants to know what the fate of its beloved humanity is. We gave it that social consciousness. Tell it.”

“Of course it’s concerned, but Rolly’s dying now, and the important thing to it is that it’s dying for humanity.” Berti paused. “And the horrible thing for Rolly, is to know that humanity really died from over-specialization when it launched the final Atomic War.”

Roland’s head raised slowly and shook back and forth. “No.”

Berti smiled. “Human intelligence never had the slightest possibility of survival. Its high cerebral specialization never had any physiological unity with the primitive muscles and nervous system. A slight chemical disturbance of the blood and the human went mad. Take away a little oxygen—his great mind was gone. Decrease the blood’s calcium—convulsions, coma, death. Slight reduction in sugar—and his mighty cerebrum blotted out, died. A slight environmental change could destroy man—aside from his obvious willingness to destroy himself. But, Rolly, in one way, perhaps, extinction, the price of evolution, isn’t too high. After all, you made us possible.”

Roland heard himself say, weakly, “But they still live out there—humans—surely they’re not—”

“But we rule,” said the woman coldly. “They—what will they do? That will be interesting. Anyway, it’s their twilight, like apes and saurians. Our dawning.”

“You’re almost gone, Rolly, dwindling away like a stream,” said Berti. “World Brain was proof against any organic enemy, including us. But not against you. A matter of kind against kind. Remember De Morgan’s familiar lines? But then you 

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