EXPLORING THE MOLECULAR WORLD
In the twenty-first century, even more than in the twentieth, it's easy to make things work without understanding them, but to a newcomer much of the technology seems like magic, which is dissatisfying. After a few days, you want to understand what nanotechnology is, on a gut level. Back in the late twentieth century, most teaching used dry words and simple pictures, but now- for a topic like this-it's easier to explore a simulated world. And so you decide to explore a simulation of the molecular world. Looking through the brochure, you read many tedious facts about the simulation: how accurate it is in describing sizes, forces, motions, and the like; how similar it is to working tools used by both engineering students and professionals; how you can buy one for your very own home, and so forth. It explains how you can tour the human body, see state-of-the-art nanotechnology in action, climb a bacterium, etc. For starters, you decide to take an introductory tour: simulations of real twentieth-century objects alongside quaint twentieth- century concepts of nanotechnology. After paying a small fee and memorizing a few key phrases (any variation of Get me out of here!"will do the most important job), you pull on a power suit, pocket a Talking Tour Guide, step into the simulation chamber, and strap the video goggles over your eyes. Looking through the goggles, you seem to be in a room with a table you know isn't really there and walls that seem too far away to fit in the simulation chamber. But trickery with a treadmill floor makes the walk to the walls seem far enough, and when you walk back and thump the table, it feels solid because the powersuit stops your hand sharply at just the right place. You can even feel the texture of the carvings on the table leg, because the suit's gloves press against your fingertips in the right patterns as you move.
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