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Meanwhile his academic life is proceeding considerably more successfully than his social life. He enrolls in university as a physics and astronomy major and obtains his B. Sc., his M. Sc. and his Ph. D., all with top honours. Then he gets a one-year definite-term appointment as an Assistant Professor of astronomy.

But with his timid personality he elicits no respect from the majority of his students; so, although he explains the subject matter as well as any first-time lecturer, they give him bad teaching evaluations and his contract is not renewed. He eventually gets a job as a computer programmer in an observatory, working for astronomers less capable than he is. He spends all his spare time doing research, concentrating mainly on SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, which has fascinated him for many years. But, although he does produce a fair number of publications, he never gets an academic appointment, and despite his obvious competence he never rises above the rank of programmer.

When he turns sixty, he is asked to retire to make room for a young programmer with better social skills. He continues with his research for another sixteen years until he finally dies the way he has lived most of his life: all alone.

If you are satisfied with the fate to which you have consigned Oskar, turn to page 43.

If you want to try a different sequence of choices, either turn to page 2 to start at the beginning or return to the page that contains the decision you want to change.