Steve is working on a graphical visualization of an architectural site on his computer. But -- the 3-D model he makes is intended to be automatically fabricated by remote control.

He is totally engrossed in what he is doing. He doesn't even seem surprised at some stranger stumbling around his office. He never looks up. Steve feels like he is an outsider too. The others are content with merely seeing images on a screen.

"What is it?" he says in a Swiss-German accent.

Larry says, "Oops, um.. sorry wrong office."

Steve smirks, "Yeah, they all look alike don't they?"

Larry, turning to go says, "I guess so. Uh, What number is this?"

Steve responds blankly, "Why?"

Larry is taken aback, "So I know which way to turn when I leave."

Steve again responds in the same matter-of-fact tone, "Seven-nineteen". It's not even dawning on him that this is an unusual question.

Larry is getting curious about this guy, "So, what do you do here?"

Steve continues on, hardly missing a beat, "Well, they originally hired me to work on methods for manufacturing the super conducting magnets in the accelerator ring -- but since I've been here, I've become side tracked a bit with prototyping technologies. I've built a machine which can sinter sand into glassy bricks under computer control. Look at the screen here. See I've cooked up a demo to show you what it will do."

Larry is beyond surprise at this guy's indifference by now, "O.k. You must be Steve. Um, do you have a Braille version?"

Steve, breaking his train of thought for the first time, "Huh? What?"

Larry, responds dryly, "I'm blind."

Steve looks up for the first time. "Oh, o.k., ah no I don't have a Braille version...... ah, sorry." However, he's not entirely surprised, either as he explains in his same matter-of-fact tone, "The Mars Colony Mission funded sending one of these machines 'up there'. I can build a CAD model of a structure here, the machine goes ahead and builds it out of sand up there. It's like a 3-D FAX machine -- only it reconstructs buildings."

Larry is finally getting what he wants to hear, "You mean you can take any 3-D computer model and build it out of real stuff?"

Steve continues, "Yes. Here's a 3-D Fractal Julia Set I have built." He hands Larry a fantastic-looking shape like some alien plant. "It's a projection from imaginary four-space."

Realizing he has just handed a sharp, pointed object to a blind man, Steve says, "Whoa, careful of the sharp points!"

Larry's hands carefully explore the form. He automatically turns it in his hands so that he has the symmetrical parts mirrored between his left and right hands.

Steve is watching Larry intently now, doing 'tactile math' as it were. Steve speaks now with real interest. "The strange thing about this object is that the tendrils are mathematically immersed in 4-space -- like tree- roots. I feel there is something fundamental in that. That is why I made a plasma model of the human nervous system -- it is a model of our immersion in the quantum continuum. You know, Roger Penrose' Quantum Computational Graviton model of consciousness?

No answer from Larry, this time. Steve continues, "Unfortunately, the most interesting part of the sculpture is encased in glass."

Larry now says, decisively, "I sure would like to get my hands on the cosmological simulations Hal Adams is doing. What I've heard of them is great, but all he's making is video on these things, and it doesn't do me any good at all."

Steve actually seems delighted now, "Yes, I could do that for you in a day or two. It would be no trouble. I'm of the opinion that merely seeing is not the last word. That puts me in a bit of a minority position around here, myself." Larry is now getting excited, "Wow, this is great. Thanks." He reaches in his pocket and pulls out his business card, printed in Braille, English and Japanese.

He says, "Here's my e-mail address. Please e-mail me the form I need to put my data in for you to build it..." And then he starts, "Oh shit what time is it?" He checks his watch; Feeling the hands. "I can't believe I've spent all this time in here. I've got to get something done today. Larry starts to leave but stops and backs up a little. "You wouldn't be interested in going to Chicago on Friday would you?"

Steve asks, "What's there?"

Larry explains, "Well, a friend invited me to this gallery opening. Well, it's really not a gallery it's more like one of those cyber cafe's but the person running it used to have a great sculpture gallery downtown. It's been closed I guess about a year. But the owner, Theodora, is great , she lets me touch the sculpture. And you seem to like 3-dimensional objects as much as I do!"

"Touch the sculpture?" Steve asks. He's cleaning up his desk, turning off his computer, getting ready to go home.

Larry replies, "You touch a watercolor with your eyes closed and let me know how much you get out of that."

"Oh I get it," Steve pauses to think for a second. "O.K. I'll go with you. Do you think this lady will let me touch the sculpture?"

Larry says, "If you drive I'll put in a good word for you.

"Deal," Steve agrees. "Saturday. Sounds good."

Copyright 2000 Stewart Dickson and Rebecka Dickson