favor of titles that emphasized processes and relationships The three junior ranks were named, in ascending order, Memonzer, Processor, and Hypothesisl The three senior ranks, developed about seventeen years later, were Generalist, Simulatiomst, and Advisor Prospective Mentats were required to have both die inner predisposition necessary to make the training cffectrve, and what Albans referred to as "a call to reason" to make the discipline tolerable Given these qualities, following a solemn decision and much pre hminary training, the initiate would be wel MENTAT ORGANIZATION 380 MENTAT ORGANIZATION corned into the actual program as a novice Memonzer MINOR ORDERS Memonzer The fully prepared Mcmonzcr was capable of retaining both related and unrelated information The final test involved absorbing a series of 2 x 104 numbers or letters and reproducing them in correct sequence, duplicating the same timing or spacing as tile original Memonzers were able to repeat entire books from recall They were able to replicate spatial configurations, such as the layout of a city after having seen the place (or plans of it) only once Their chief accomplishment, however, was the ability to repeat conversations word for word from start to finish, mimicking the cadence and vocal inflection of each participant Albans worked hardest to help young memonzers avoid what he called the "Babble Problem"--becoming overwhelmed by the minutiae of data The best defense against Babble was farther training to categorize the data CHOAM directors especially appreciated the record-keeping ability of memonzers, particularly since the Butlenan Jihad had destroyed the most efficient means of storing the voluminous records of interplanetary commerce But Gilbertus Albans refused to seU Mentals who were' 'merely memonzers, * as he put it The minimum rank required before a Mental could be sold, even for routine CHOAM use, was that of Hypothesis! Albans was not bind to the economic value of his trainees, but even in the hardest, poorest early years he refused to compromise his standards He insisted that "a public representative of our Order must be able to do more than just sponge up data, chew on it, and blat it out in unhelpful chunks "' Processor Processors teamed to combine, divide, sort, and file pieces of discrete information with 99 99985 percent accuracy per 10,000 items They were capable of introducing order and regularity to seemmgly unrelated sets of information Albans noted that the clear danger to Processors was that the order they introduced ought or might not accord with reality Thus, Processors were trained to attempt first to use the categories and labels that others provided The sorting, sifting, and retrieving of information, as well as the ability to connect it with specific names places, or events was valuable beyond esti mation in the anti computer culture of the times Hypothesis! Hypothesists were trained to extrapolate from information t