"You could maybe get some of the benefits of the caste system with something that doesn't look much like a caste system but it is probably not the best application of magical-aptitude-hat power levels, yeah."

"Well, it's not like the hat has other, non-sorting uses that I'm aware of - except it sings, but only about Houses - but I really don't think we require a caste system at all."

"Do you mean 'and have an improved aptitude hat tell kids which schools to go to' or 'and don't let humans specialize until they're old enough for it to be obvious by testing', or..."

"...I mean 'not have a caste system'. That doesn't mean no specialization, it means no coercive specialization. I think the concern there... the one that makes any sense... is that people will gamble on their kids making it in green professions and send them to schools that teach green things when they'll have to fall back on something else, but, uh, I don't actually think that's a catastrophe, compared to, like, my poor alt. So somebody'll know how to play the piano when they learn to pilot spaceships, big deal."

"That's not the concern there."

"What is?"

" - like, the fundamental question that we're asking is 'how do we make sure that people with a wide range of abilities and interests have, by the time they reach young adulthood, the skills to do a job that pays enough to live on?' And 'not a caste system' isn't an answer to that, it's a - ruling-out of a bunch of answers, after which you have to propose an actual answer. And the concern is that any specific actual answer anyone comes up with will not result in most people reaching young adulthood with job skills. Like, trust me, I'm not wedded to casteing humans, but I am pretty attached to having an education system good enough that everyone comes out of it knowing how to do a job that pays enough for them to be part of their culture and community and society."

"Maybe all humans should be entitled to dividends from the rent on Earth, since aliens stole it."

" - where do you think the schools and clinics and water treatment plants and food banks and so all are getting funded from?"

"I'm aware there are Anitami investors and that humans are benefiting from these things. The caste system doesn't actually do what you're describing. It failed my alt pretty spectacularly. Doesn't work really well for Telkam either. And those are just people I know. Amentans have to learn to actually perform specific jobs, of which there are more than six, the specific functions of each of which are not and cannot be covered in school. I guess if you're really committed to doing not-nothing about this desideratum you could give kids tests, sure, but I do in fact think you could do nothing about it."

"Well, I am sure they will try doing nothing and if it works then great. Is Telkam's alt contributing in any way to the global economy?"

"He worked at a dragon preserve. Dragons need preserving because otherwise they set things on fire but they are very magically useful. ...he quit when the aliens invaded."

"A dragon preserve. Cool. I'm all for swaps, and for experiments more radical than that, but I will confess it would surprise me a lot if the best thing that can be done is 'nothing', or even if 'nothing' turns out better than 'pick a caste'."

"I'm not sure how we'd adjudicate a bet."

"Well, I hope that they find something that's really great."

"Me too."

Toddler eats potatoes and smears soup everywhere and occasionally looks longingly at other peoples' fish.

"Are you sure you don't want any fish, Almin?" says Niho.

"Ewwww," says Almin firmly.

"Suit yourself." Mmm, fish.

"What infrastructure do magic teleporting people like? The trains can't be anything to write home about."

"We do have magic fireplaces that you can use to travel from one to another, if you don't know how to teleport yet or don't like it or don't know where you're going well enough. Those are a little bit like trains."

"Fireplaces?"

"There's stuff you throw in the fire, and then you step in and say where you're going, and it takes you."

"...and where do you have fires in the first place?"