Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 56 — page 103: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION a bit and could tell near - enough what was going on. Slats—that’s Professor Slat- terly to anyone outside the Institute, though we all called him Slats—he told me once what the project was for. *“You’re an intelligent man, Murphy,” he said to me one afternoon when I should have been cleaning out the furnace but had sat in on an experi- ment instead. “In any other sort of social structure you might have been different to what you are. Tell me, why is it that you’re just a caretaker ?” “It suits me,”’ I said, though that wasn’t the real reason. “The work’s easy and I like helping out in‘ the labs.” **That’s what I mean,” he said. ‘““You should never have been a caretaker. I'll bet that you’ve never had a proper education.” Well, that was true enough. I’d learned to read and write and cram enough maths in my head so that I wouldn’t be short-changed, but that was about all. The rest of what 102 I knew Id picked up from books and hanging around the staff with my ears open and my mouth shut. It’s surprising what you can learn that way. Slats nodded when I’d told him. “I knew it. Now, suppose that there hadn’t been any need for caretakers? What then ?”’ “I'd have starved,” I said. “Or taken up labouring and killed myself with heavy work before my time.” He tutted at that and I guessed that I’d said the wrong thing. I tried again. I didn’t want to appear too dumb in front of him, and anyway, I had a reputation to live up to. “I think 1 see what you mean,’ I said, slowly. “‘No caretakers, and that could mean no manual labour at all for anyone. Right?” “That’s it!’ He smiled as if I'd just done something wonderful. “If we could eli- minate the necessity for man- ual work then there would be coniicloooks.com