Eddie did not answer for a minute. Then: "You start with one or two ... well, it's like this, Larry. I'm afraid it's dead. They grow exponentially. Figure out how much money you'd have at the end of a month if you started with just a penny and doubled your money every day. In just a little while, you'd have all the money in the world. Figure it out sometime. Things that grow exponentially, they just don't know when to quit. And your culture, here, it grew until the environment could no longer support it and all at once the food was eaten up and it died."
"I ... see.... Something like that could just grow until it took over the whole world, couldn't it?"
Again Eddie was silent for a moment. Then he rumpled his son's hair. "That's science fiction, Larry."
Later, while they were listening to FM, there was a news break reporting a fire out of control in South Los Angeles.
"That's near Becky's, I'll bet," she said. "I better phone."
The phone was still out of order.
"I sure feel cut off without a phone."
After an interlude of music, Lois said, "Larry wants to be an engineer, now. I guess after what you said, maybe that's a pretty good thing."
Eddie looked up from his cigarette. "Why this all of a sudden?"