me on, step into the mummy case." He
waved toward the narrow niche in the wall of the court, a niche just big
enough to hold a standing man. Stanton stepped in, and various
instrument pickups came out of the walls and touched him at various
points on his body. Hidden machines recorded his heartbeat, his blood
pressure, his brain activity, his muscular tension, his breathing, and
several other factors.

After a minute the P.T. man said, "Okay, Bart, that's it. Let's hit the
steam box."

Stanton stepped out of the niche and accompanied the therapist to
another room, where he took off the robe again and sat down on the small
stool inside an ordinary steam box. The box closed, leaving his head
free, and the box began to fill with steam.

"Did I ever tell you just what it is that I don't like about that
machine?" Stanton asked as the therapist draped a heavy towel around his
head.

"Nope. Didn't know you had any gripe. What is it?"

"You can't gloat after you beat it. You can't walk over and pat it on
the shoulder and say, 'Well, better luck next time, old man.' It isn't a
good loser, and it isn't a bad loser. The damned thing doesn't even know
it lost, and even if it did, it wouldn't care."

"Yeah, I see what you mean," said the P.T. man, chuckling. "You beat the
pants off it and what d'you get? Nothing. Not even a case of the sulks
out of it."

"Exactly. And what's worse, I know perfectly good and well that it's
only half trying. The stupid gadget could beat me easily if you just
turned that knob over a little more."

"Yeah, sure. But you're not competing against the machine, anyway," the
therapist said. "What you're doing, you're competing against yourself,
trying to beat your own record."

"I know. And what happens when I can't do _that_ any more, either?"
Stanton asked. "I can't just go on getting better and better forever.
I've got limits, you know."

"Sure," said the therapist easily. "So does anybody. So does a golf
player, for instance. You take a golf player, he goes out and practices
by himself to try to beat his own record."

"Bunk! Hogwash! The real fun in _any_ game is beating someone else! The
big kick in golf is winning over the other guy in a twosome."

"How about crossword puzzles or solitaire?"

"When you solve a crossword puzzle, you've beaten the guy who made up
the puzzle. When you play solitaire, you're playing against the laws of
chance, and that can become pretty boring unless there'