the next morning, feeling relaxed and refreshed and eager to begin his study of the book again, hari asked dors, "how old would you say the raindrop sisters are?"

"i dont know. twenty ... twenty-two?"

"well, suppose they do live three or four centuries."

"hari. thats ridiculous."

"im saying suppose. in mathematics, we say suppose all the time and see if we can end up with something patently untrue or self-contradictory. an extended life span would almost surely mean an extended period of development. they might seem in their early twenties and actually be in their sixties."

"you can try asking them how old they are."

"we can assume theyd lie."

"look up their birth certificates."

seldon smiled wryly. "ill bet you anything you like--a roll in the hay, if youre willing--that theyll claim they dont keep records or that, if they do, they will insist those records are closed to tribespeople."

"no bet," said dors. "and if thats true, then its useless trying to suppose anything about their age."

"oh no. think of it this way. if the mycogenians are living extended life spans that are four or five times that of ordinary human beings, they cant very well give birth to very many children without expanding their population tremendously. you remember that sunmaster said something about not having the population expand and bit off his remarks angrily at that time."

dors said, "what are you getting at?"

"when i was with raindrop forty-three, i saw no children."

"on the microfarms?"

"yes."

"did you expect children there? i was with raindrop forty-five in the shops and on the residential levels and i assure you i saw a number of children of all ages, including infants. quite a few of them."

"ah." seldon looked chagrined. "then that would mean they cant be enjoying extended life spans."

dors said, "by your line of argument, i should say definitely not. did you really think they did?"

"no, not really. but then you cant close your mind either and make assumptions without testing them one way or another."

"you can waste a lot of time that way too, if you stop to chew away at things that are ridiculous on the face of it."

"some things that seem ridiculous on the face of it arent. thats all. which reminds me. youre the historian. in your work, have you ever come across objects or phenomena called robots?"

"ah! now youre switching to another legend and a very popular one. there are any number of worlds that imagine the existence of machines in human form in prehistoric times. these are called robots.

"the tales of robots probably originate from one master legend, for the general theme is the same. robots were devised, then grew in numbers and abilities to the status of the almost superhuman. they threatened humanity and were destroyed. in every case, the destruction took place before the actual reliable historic records available to us today existed. the usual feeling is that the story is a symbolic picture of the risks and dangers of exploring the galaxy, when human beings expanded outward from the world or worlds that were their original homes. there must always have been the fear of encountering other--and superior--intelligences."

"perhaps they did at least once and that gave rise to the legend."

"except that on no human--occupied world has there been any record or trace of any prehuman or nonhuman intelligence."

"but why robots? does the word have meaning?"

"not that i know of, but its the equivalent of the familiar automata. "

"automata! well, why dont they say so?"

"because people do use archaic terms for flavor when they tell an ancient legend. why do you ask all this, by the way?"

"because in this ancient mycogenian book, they talk of robots. and very favorably, by the way.--listen, dors, arent you going out with raindrop forty-five again this afternoon?"

"supposedly--if she shows up."

"would you ask her some questions and try to get the answers out of her?"

"i can try. what are the questions?"

"i would like to find out, as tactfully as possible, if there is some structure in mycogen that is particularly significant, that is tied in with the past, that has a sort of mythic value, that can--"

dors interrupted, trying not to smile. "i think that what you are trying to ask is whether mycogen has a temple."

and, inevitably, seldon looked blank and said, "whats a temple?"

"another archaic term of uncertain origin. it means all the things you asked about--significance, past, myth. very well, ill ask. its the sort of thing, however, that they might find difficult to speak of. to tribespeople, certainly."

"nevertheless, do try."

sacratorium

aurora-- ... a mythical world, supposedly inhabited in primordial times, during the dawn of interstellar travel. it is thought by some to he the perhaps equally mythical "world of origin" of humanity and to be another name for "earth." the people of the mycogen (q.v.) sector of ancient trantor reportedly held themselves to be descended from the inhabitants of aurora and made that tenet central to their system of beliefs, concerning which almost nothing else is known ...

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