The knowledge machine
I got out of court that day? I went into the nearest EE shop and had them erase every course I had, even my grammar.

And I did it because I was worried. I was worried by what Doc Kindler had said that day in the courtroom.

"My crooked assistant and this dolt Purdy whom he deceived didn't realize all they were doing when they exploited my discovery!" Kindler said. "When I collapsed, my experiments with Electro-Education were not yet complete.

"I had discovered that the minute electronic impulses used in Electro-Education have a permanent effect on the germ-plasm as well as the soma, but hadn't yet found out what the effect is."

"Will you state your meaning in less technical terms, doctor?" the judge asked.

Kindler's voice was grave. "I mean that the EE impulses have a powerful mutational effect on the genes that control the brain-development of the unborn child."

I got worried.

"Is my little boy going to be dotty because Helen and I took a lot of EE before he was born?" I asked him.

"That, I can't say yet," Kindler said grimly. "I was trying to determine the nature of the effect when I collapsed, and you let Carter talk you into appropriating my work."

That was what scared me into having all my EE erased before I went home that night. And Helen threw a fit when she heard about it.

"Now don't get hysterical," I begged. "The doc said he didn't know what the effect on Percival would be. It might not be so bad."

"But you and I were almost the first people to take EE, and whatever's going to happen to people's babies because of it, will happen first to Percival!" she sobbed.

We went in and hung over his crib. I couldn't see a thing wrong with him and I said so. He was as fat, healthy-looking a year-old baby as you'd want to see, as he lay there looking up at us.

"Yes, but what about his mind?" Helen sobbed. "He should be trying to talk by now, but he hasn't said a word."

"Maybe I could get him to talk, if I worked hard enough with him," I said desperately. I chucked Percival under the chin. "Say mama, Percival! Kuchy, kuchy—say mama!"


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