on, "we invented a scanner that can change the labyrinthine neural-connections of the brain by tiny electronic impulses, just as you can rewire that generator's coils. With it, we can set up any desired neural paths in an instant by applying just the right electronic impulses at the right points in the network.

"Any ordinary set of facts requires thousands of new neural paths in the brain. To learn a subject like Sanskrit, for instance, requires tens of thousands. The scanner can put these new neural connections in your brain in a flash, by projecting a pre-determined pattern of electronic impulses."

"Can it be done?" I asked him.

"We proved it could be done!" Carter told me. "Doctor Kindler knew French, and I didn't. The scanner first scanned his neural patterns, isolated those having to do with word-meanings, and recorded them on a moving tape. Then we ran the tape back, reversing the scanner so it would repeat that pattern of electronic impulses on my own brain. It took ten minutes. At the end of that time, I knew French perfectly!"

That was a little hard to swallow.

"You mean, you didn't have to study it or anything?" I said. "You just knew it, all of a sudden?"

"Exactly," said Carter. "I see you look incredulous. I can soon prove the thing by running the same tape through on you."

He grabbed the big metal cap that was connected to the machine by a lot of cables, and jammed it down on my head.

I began to protest. I didn't like the idea of anybody fooling around with my mind. But Carter switched on the machine before I could stop him.

There was a humming, and a tape started unwinding inside the machine. I didn't feel anything except a queer tingling in my head. In a few minutes the humming stopped, and the tingling stopped too.

Carter took the metal cap off me and looked at me.

"Well, I don't feel any different," I told him.

"Vous savez le francais maintenant?" he shot at me.

"Oui, parfaitement," I shot right back at him. "Mais—"

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