"you had no father. we give to each of you a sufficient store of memories and a background of a distant town. that happened to be yours, but there is no connection here. the children call you tony the tin man because (like all really cruel creatures) they have an instinct for the truth that can hurt; and they will never forget it."
"then i am a tin man?"
"well, no. actually only seventeen percent metal. and less than a third of one percent tin. you are compounded of animal, vegetable, and mineral fiber, and there was much effort given to your manufacture and programming. yet the taunt of the children is essentially true."
"then, if i am only tony the tin man, how can i know all the people in the world in my mind?"
"you have no mind."
"in my brain then. how can all that be in one small brain?"
"because your brain is not in your head, and it is not small. come, i may as well show it to you; i've told you enough that it won't matter if you know a little more. there are few who are taken on personally conducted sight-seeing tours of their own brains. you should be grateful.
"gratitude seems a little tardy."
they went into the barred area, down into the bowels of the main building of the center. and they looked at the brain of anthony trotz, a restricted person in its special meaning.
"it is the largest in the world," said colonel cooper.
"how large?"
"a little over twelve hundred cubic meters."
"what a brain! and it is mine?"
"you are an adjunct to it, a runner for it, an appendage, inasmuch as you are anything at all."
"colonel cooper, how long have i been alive?"
"you are not."
"how long have i been as i am now?"
"it is three days since you were last reassigned, since you were assigned to this. at that time your nervousness and apprehensions were introduced. an apprehensive unit will be more inclined to notice details just a little out of the ordinary."
"and what is my purpose?"
they were walking now back to the office work area, and anthony had a sad feeling at leaving his brain behind him.
"this is a filter center, and your purpose is to serve as a filter, of a sort. every person has a slight aura around him. it is a characteristic of his, and is part of his personality and purpose. and it can be detected, electrically, magnetically, even visually under special conditions. the accumulator at which we were looking (your brain) is designed to maintain contact with all the auras in the world, and to keep a running and complete data on them all. it contains a multiplicity of circuits for each of its three billion and some subjects. however, as aid to its operation, it was necessary to assign several artificial consciousnesses to it. you are one of these."
