alt:
“There are,” the robot said rather wearily, “only a limited number of
character matrices possible, depending first on the arrangement of the
genes within the chromosomes, and later upon environmental additions.
Since environments tend to repeat—like societies, you know—an
organizational pattern isn’t hard to lay out, along the Kaldekooz
time-scale. You follow me so far?”
“By the Kaldekooz time-scale, yes,” Martin said.
“I was always lucid,” the robot remarked a little vainly, nourishing a
swirl of red ribbon.
“Keep that thing away from me,” Martin complained. “Drunk I may be, but
I have no intention of sticking my neck out that far.”
“Of course you’ll do it,” the robot said firmly. “Nobody’s ever refused
yet. And don’t bicker with me or you’ll get me confused and I’ll have to
take another jolt of voltage. Then there’s no telling how confused I’ll
be. My memory gives me enough trouble when I temporalize. Time-travel
always raises the synaptic delay threshold, but the trouble is it’s so
variable. That’s why I got you mixed up with Ivan at first. But I don’t
visit him till after I’ve seen you—I’m running the test
chronologically, and nineteen-fifty-two comes before fifteen-seventy, of
course.”
“It doesn’t,” Martin said, tilting the glass to his lips. “Not even in
Hollywood does nineteen-fifty-two come before fifteen-seventy.”
“I’m using the Kaldekooz time-scale,” the robot explained. “But really
only for convenience. Now do you want the ideal ecological differential
or don’t you? Because—” Here he flourished the red ribbon again, peered
into the helmet, looked narrowly at Martin, and shook his head.
(source)
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