the classified nature of the experimental designs and controls. There were similar reservations on the part of some with respect to the reliability and, more importantly, the validity, of the tests. Historians, largely in obscure monographs, often privately published, had noted interesting correlations, spanning several thousand years, between the pronouncements of objective science and the requirements of various political establishments. The ports at which the ship of science called were often determined by the rudder of politics. Similarly the cargos it carried and the goods it pretended to deliver were often determined by those who, in effect, owned the ship.
Some social scientists, perhaps in virtue of the limitations of their less vast perspectives, tended to find difficulties elsewhere, as, for example, in the redefinition of the parameters to be assessed. For example, if one changes the meaning of a locution ‘A’ to that of locution ‘B,’ while retaining the original expression ‘A,’ it is natural one would then discover numerous bits of interesting and important information about A’s, never before noticed. For example, if one changed the meaning of, say, ‘tigrons’ to that of ‘tidwit’, then it turns out, of course, that the true tigron would have the properties of a tidwit. To be sure, this is not likely to have any effect on what used to be called a tigron, and, as a consequence of reformational definition, was no longer a tigron, unless, of course, it could be convinced that it must either be, or pretend to be, a tidwit. Recalcitrance, or dissent, of course, would be rare in science, for various reasons, for example, the objective nature of the enterprise and the publicness of its validation procedures. The control of access to graduate education, and the control of professional certifications, appointments, reappointments, tenure, fundings, grants, staff, facilities, equipment, outlets for publication, and such, would also be helpful. Lastly it might be mentioned that various attempts to reform language itself had been attempted, the object being to make it impossible for divergent axiological viewpoints to be expressed, and, ideally, and more importantly, if all went well, even to be thought. This program, for better or for worse, had been largely unsuccessful, because language, in its cognitive richness, as always, and even in its engineered versions, proved itself better adapted to be the accomplice of thought than its jailer. Too, for example, the removal of a word, say, ‘tigron’, if one wished to do so, from a language, did not, after all, remove tigrons. It would just make it a bit more of a bother to talk about them. Too, the hole left in the lexicon tended to draw attention to itself. And so the old words, or variants of them, would return, to talk about the old things, which had not gone away. To be sure, the linguistic reformers still had at their disposal numerous time-honored devices, such as slander, denunciation, and censorship. But it is aside from our narrative to enter into detail on these interesting matters.
Rodriguez obtained the fiscal number of the porter, and punched him a credit. He had had his Commonworld credits, as had Brenner, converted to company credits. This had been done in their in-processing at the agent’s office, at the depot.
The porter then turned about and left the room.
Brenner closed the door, carefully, after him, and locked it, fastening it, too, with a chain.
“You do not tip the maids for their services,” said Rodriguez.
“Their services?”
“No,” said Rodriguez, throwing his bag on one of the beds, and opening it.
“Changing sheets, and such,” said Brenner.
“And such,” said Rodriguez, absently, tossing some linen on the bed.
“Their dresses,” said Brenner, the word sounding strange in his mouth, “are rather revealing.”
“They are intended to be such,” said Rodriguez, attending to his business. “If you think that sort of thing is revealing you should see slave garb, when they are permitted garb.”
Brenner thought to himself that Rodriguez had probably seen slaves, real slaves. Brenner was uneasy even with the thought of such. He had heard that such women were even branded.
“Did you notice the maids?” asked Brenner.
“Of course,” said Rodriguez.
“They are a comely lot,” said Brenner.
“They are picked to be comely,” said Rodriguez. “There is a bell there,” he said, pointing. “You can ring it, if you want maid service.”
“‘Maid service’?” asked Brenner.
“Yes,” said Rodriguez.
“I do not understand,” said Brenner.
“Surely you noted that they were barefoot, and noted their left ankles.”
“Yes,” said Brenner. “They wore some sort of ornament there.”