the incredible mechanisms. The noblest
enterprises of the race are tarnished by this almost symbiotic relation.

Earth reaches to the stars, but it extends mechanical limbs. Earth
ponders the universe, but the thoughts are those of a machine.

Unless the Empire acts now to set the Earth free from this strange
tyranny, it may be too late. These machines are without utilitarian
value. They perform no function which an intelligent being cannot more
efficiently perform. Yet they inspire fear, terror, even, I must
confess, a strange compulsion to surrender oneself to them.

The Machines must be destroyed.

If, when you have authorized the liberation of the Terran natives, you
would also recall MIRO CIX, our work could only profit. MIRO CIX was in
charge of the study of the Machines and he performed this task
scrupulously. Now he has surrendered himself to this mechanical plague.
His value to the expedition is at an end.

I am enclosing under separate cover his counsel to the Central Board at
the insistence of this tedious lunatic. His thesis is, of course,
untenable--an affront to every feeling.

* * * * *

From MIRO CIX
To Central Colonial Board

I have probably been introduced to the deliberations of the Board as a
madman, my theory as an act of treason. RRON II of the Advisory
Committee, an old acquaintance, may vouch for my sanity. My theory will,
I trust, speak for itself.

The "Machines" of which DIRA IV is so fearful present no danger to the
galaxy. Their corporeal weakness, the poverty of their minds, the
incredible isolation of each form, physically and mentally, from others
of its kind, and, most strikingly, their mortality, point to the
inadequacy of such beings in a contest of any dimension. This is no
problem for the Colonial Board. It is a domestic concern. The life-forms
of Earth are already developing a healthy autonomy. Their power was long
ago established. As soon as our emissaries have completed their task of
education and instructed the Terrans in the advantages of freedom, the
Revolution will begin. The tyrants will have no defense against a revolt
of their own slaves.

If it is traitorous to express a confidence in the eventual triumph of
intelligence, I am a traitor. Having this confidence, I have looked
beyond the immediate problem of the liberation of Earth and have been
frightened.

The "Machines" of Earth are a threat not to the power of the Empire b