{"id":30,"date":"2016-11-16T23:21:17","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T23:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ofseveralworlds.com\/?p=30"},"modified":"2017-11-01T17:04:40","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T17:04:40","slug":"of-several-worlds-a-post-nanotechnology-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ofseveralworlds.com\/?p=30","title":{"rendered":"Of Several Worlds &#8211; A Post-Nanotechnology Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t<!-- @page { margin-right: 1in; margin-top: 0.5in; margin-bottom: 0.62in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --><br \/>\t<\/style>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"CENTER\">Here are a few excerpts from my novel, now available for both Kindle, and as a paperback (links below). \u00a0I&#8217;m donating all proceeds to charity. \u00a0There is considerable mystery in the story, so I&#8217;m limiting the excerpts so as not to be providing any major spoilers.<\/p>\n<p align=\"CENTER\"><span style=\"color: #1c611d;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\">1 \u00a0The Shock of Reality<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>. . . .<\/p>\n<p>Mum, groggy but back on her feet, thanks to Opti\u2019s efforts, went into her trance to prepare for throwing her most powerful cure spell.\u00a0 After less than a minute, which seemed like hours to Max, the magician laid her hand on Twiny\u2019s huge neck wound as she mumbled her incantations.\u00a0 The wound noticeably shrank, but was still worrisome.\u00a0 The mighty magician repeated the process knowing that her second use on the same day was not guaranteed to work.\u00a0 It did and she then was able to finish the job with a slightly weaker spell.\u00a0 As she was preparing that, suddenly something even scarier happened.\u00a0 Something that none of them were expecting.<\/p>\n<p>It was such a sudden change it took them all a second to recalibrate their senses and figure out what had happened.\u00a0 After the initial shock wore off, they were all saddened to realize that they were going to have to deal with that boring thing called reality.<\/p>\n<p>As they sat there in their comfy chairs looking at each other\u2019s modern clothes and nerdy faces, they all wondered the same thing.\u00a0 Brady (\u201cMax\u201d just a second ago) always had the wise-crack.\u00a0 \u201cHey Bill, did that cure spell backfire or something?\u201d\u00a0 Bill was too busy adjusting his mindset back to his true gender to answer.\u00a0 It was common for players to play characters that were very different from their true identities, and everyone agreed it didn\u2019t necessarily mean anything, but it still could take a few seconds to reorient, even for Simsitters like them.\u00a0 The feelings ran so deep that Bill still felt like he was sisters with Carla, instead of just friends, which of course just added to the challenge of orienting himself.\u00a0 He wondered if Brady and Sam felt like twin brothers now.\u00a0 It was hard to believe with Sam about six feet tall, with a large head topped off with wispy blonde hair, and eyes clearly showing his intelligence, and most of all always taking things so seriously.\u00a0 Compare that with Brady being about a foot shorter, a bit overweight, and his partly bald head always smiling and laughing.\u00a0 No way are they even related.\u00a0 Bill had once remarked that it was strange that their characters choose to be twins, only to get rebuffed about how his choice of gender was not exactly realistic, either.\u00a0 Bill had a build that was slightly less than average for a teenage boy, but that was still considerably bulkier than the body of his alter-ego, Mum.\u00a0 About the only thing that was the same was the hair color, although of course Bill\u2019s brown hair was much shorter, and was not at all naturally curly.<\/p>\n<p>Suddenly, they all began to talk at once.\u00a0 Carla felt a bit shy, hiding behind her long, straight blonde hair, now that she was no longer a powerful gypsy.\u00a0 She tried to overcome her shyness by exclaiming \u201cI\u2019m surprised I didn\u2019t know that was about to happen,\u201d only to realize in horror that her ability to see into the future was just part of the simulation as well.\u00a0 Like many Simsitters, she spent more of her time in the simulation than in real life; to the point that the simulation and real life essentially reversed roles.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone else was chiming in with their favorite theory of what went wrong.\u00a0 Brady proposed, \u201cI bet our parents pulled the plug on it.\u00a0 They don\u2019t like us to have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sam looked a bit concerned as he offered, \u201cI hope that\u2019s all it is.\u00a0 If not, it means a lot of safeguards and backup systems failed at once, which would be a bad sign.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo what are we going to do now?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sam continued, \u201cMyself, I plan to head back to the colony and see what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bill chimed in, \u201cCan\u2019t we try to just fix it ourselves?\u00a0 I for one don\u2019t look forward to dealing with the oldies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After some more debate that was going nowhere, they all decided they had to do the ugly task of interacting with mere people to find out.<\/p>\n<p>They got up from their chairs, expecting them to pack themselves away as usual.\u00a0 When they didn\u2019t, Sam\u2019s dread turned into a sharp pain in his stomach.\u00a0 \u201cNow I <em>know<\/em> something major is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, the gangly teenagers left their misbehaving chairs behind and walked the short distance to the settlement.\u00a0 Carla was focusing on settling back into reality, and taking in her surroundings.\u00a0 New Cal was a beautiful planet after all, with its lush vegetation just to the right side of their path, and the cute monkey-like creatures they called Monkers joyfully prancing and bouncing around in the jungle.\u00a0 To their left she could see the Flippers, which her mom said reminded her of Earth\u2019s Dolphins, except for their overly elaborate fins, splashing away in the nearby sea.<\/p>\n<p>She heard the birds singing, much like the ones in the education downloads she had to take so she \u201cwould know what it was like back on Earth.\u201d\u00a0 Why she needed to know that was a puzzle to her since the colony had left Earth a few years before she was even born.\u00a0 Still, it was related to Biology, which was one of her favorite subjects to study, and the few minutes it took to pack that lesson into her brain was hardly a high price to pay for knowledge.\u00a0 It was just one of thousands of downloads she had enjoyed in her short, but thorough education.\u00a0 To help her study biology, of course she had to learn chemistry and many other related fields.<\/p>\n<p>They approached the little village, with its rows of perfectly fabricated housing units, each with a roof covered with atomically-precise, multi-layer solar cells.\u00a0 Bill was always a bit troubled by the hauntingly-dark black with an almost undetectable deep reddish tint of those cells, as they almost perfectly absorbed nearly the entire solar spectrum.\u00a0 The windows were variously-tinted, as usual.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, the windows are still tinted, and that takes nano, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, but the nano is what changes the tinting levels.\u00a0 It is not needed to keep them at a given tint setting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou mean if the nano is not working, some of these people are going to be living in completely transparent homes?\u00a0 And others will be in dark homes with no way to see out?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s right.\u00a0 But, believe me, if nano is not working, the tint of their walls is going to be the least of their worries.\u00a0 Now, hush Bill, I want to hear what is being said.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They were close enough to the colony grounds to start hearing the people in intense conversations.\u00a0 There was much commotion, furthering the theory that something major was wrong beyond just the simulation.\u00a0 It almost looked as though all two hundred plus of the colony inhabitants were out of their homes talking anxiously in large and small groups.<\/p>\n<p>Clara observed, \u201cEven the Monkers seem more active than normal.\u00a0 And there goes the adults, chasing them away, as usual.\u00a0 I feel kind of sorry for the cute things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sam\u2019s inherent knack, even compulsion, for solving problems kicked into high gear as he continued getting his bearings reset to the real world.\u00a0 Being the tallest of the four, he could see a little further.\u00a0 Even at a distance, it was easy to spot his dad, with his tall head covered in a mix of black and silver-grey hair, sitting on top of a tall, slender body.\u00a0 He was in serious discussions with several other adults.<\/p>\n<p>Echoing Sam\u2019s thoughts, Brady said, \u201cI bet Mr. Wizard is pretty busy at this point.\u201d\u00a0 He was of course using the informal moniker Sam\u2019s father had earned, being by far the most technically-inclined person in the colony.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBusy or not, I\u2019m determined to get involved\u201d Sam said as he marched straight towards the growing group around his father.\u00a0 He started to hear the conversation.\u00a0 A man with a puzzled look on his face was addressing his dad.\u00a0 \u201cBut Clark, I know enough about nanotechnology to know that not everything is made out of active nano, so why did everything stop working?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sam knew the answer even before hearing his father\u2019s response, \u201cYou are right that most things do not have active molecular manufacturing capability in them.\u00a0 However, nearly every object we use has nano-based computers at least controlling it.\u00a0 Those computers no longer appear to be working, either.\u00a0 So, nearly everything has turned into bricks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A mother holding an infant added, \u201cBut, there are supposed to be all sorts of safeguards built into the overall system to prevent problems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clark was feeling a bit trapped at this point, and this wasn\u2019t getting anywhere, but he still answered, \u201cMost of those safeguards, like the so-called Blue Nano, are there to prevent nano from doing something bad, not to ensure it keeps operating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, do you think it\u2019s the Blue Nano that caused this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat can we do to fix this, and how long will it take?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clark held up his hands, \u201cLook I know we all have lots of questions and concerns, but I don\u2019t have all the answers.\u00a0 In fact, I need time to study the problem and to try and generate some answers.\u00a0 So, please let me do that. . .\u00a0 I\u2019ll tell you what, let\u2019s meet in the commons tomorrow morning at 8 AM, and I\u2019ll explain the best I can, and try to answer all your questions.\u201d\u00a0 With that, he turned and started making his way out of the crowd towards his home office \/ lab.\u00a0 Sam was the only one that joined him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFather, you don\u2019t think it\u2019s the Blue Nano doing all this, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, no, probably not.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it can shut down everything at once like this, and why would it, anyway?\u00a0 Things seemed to be working fine.\u00a0 The Blue Nano is supposed to just watch for the occasional errant nano\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, I know and police it by surrounding it and, if necessary, destroying it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, and it seems to have just stopped working, instead, which is another indication this is not the work of Blue Nano.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook, I really want to help.\u00a0 What should I work on first?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI appreciate that son, and I\u2019m happy to see you and your friends are Okay, but I\u2019m afraid I just need to focus on this myself.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to be unusually busy, possibly for quite some time.\u00a0 The best way you can help is to be patient and understanding of that.\u201d\u00a0 Sam was taken aback by that condescending response.\u00a0 He stopped walking and watched as his father put distance between them, literally and figuratively.<\/p>\n<p>. . . .<\/p>\n<p align=\"CENTER\"><span style=\"color: #1c611d;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\">4\u00a0\u00a0Creatures Large and Small<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>. . . .<\/p>\n<p>Carla watched patiently while Sam built his instrument.\u00a0 When he finished, he tried it a bit, made some adjustments, then said, \u201cWell, it\u2019s far from perfect, but I think it\u2019s good enough to help us.\u201d\u00a0 He took a nearby leaf and put it under the homemade microscope, and looked through the eyepiece.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t have a good way to focus it, and without a light, it\u2019s a bit hard to see much, but have a look.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Carla moved to look.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t want to even touch what looked pretty delicate.\u00a0 She pulled away and looked at the leaf directly, then put her eye back at the end of the tube.\u00a0 \u201cGood job.\u00a0 I can see some sort of bugs or parasites crawling around on the leaf.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of funny to consider that they are probably just as oblivious to us as we normally are of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>. . . .<\/p>\n<p>The next day something delightful, albeit bit creepy, happened.\u00a0 As soon as the rain stopped shortly after sunrise, Clara opened the tent to find a pile of several types of berries and nuts sitting in their cook pot.\u00a0 When the others awoke, she said, \u201cOkay, who had insomnia last night?\u201d\u00a0 No one seemed to be the culprit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, if none of you did this, then where the heck did these come from?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Everyone looked at Brady, figuring it was the sort of prank he would pull.\u00a0 \u201cHey, don\u2019t look at me!\u00a0 I didn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>About then Clara said, \u201cI think I know who did this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>. . . .<\/p>\n<p align=\"CENTER\"><span style=\"color: #1c611d;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\">12 \u00a0The\u00a0Not-So-Simple Life<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Betty woke up with a yawn as she stretched her little body.\u00a0 At under 15 kg, she was small even for a five year old girl, but she had big eyes to compensate.\u00a0 As she did every morning, she jumped out of bed and ran to the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of the cute Monkers in the jungle behind her home.<\/p>\n<p>Waving, she spoke quietly to them, \u201cGood morning Monkers!\u201d\u00a0 Shaking her head, she added even more quietly, \u201cI sure don\u2019t understand why mommy and daddy are so afraid of you.\u00a0 You seem to just be playing.\u00a0 You don&#8217;t seem bad to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She lost sight of them as they retreated deeper into the vegetation, but then her eye caught something else.\u00a0 Some piles of something kind of shiny, just outside her window.\u00a0 \u201cI wonder if the Monkers left me a gift?\u00a0 I better not tell anyone, or they\u2019ll make me give it back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Betty\u2019s run towards the back door was of course interrupted by a demand for her to eat breakfast, first.\u00a0 \u201cOK, but then can I go out and play?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She ate quickly, then ran out the door before her mother could even wipe her hands.\u00a0 The little girl was relieved to see the small piles still there.\u00a0 They looked a bit like little pebbles, but a little shinier and much lighter in weight.\u00a0 She wondered if she could make something pretty out of them.\u00a0 But, how to get them inside, where she could keep them?\u00a0 \u201cI have an idea\u201d.\u00a0 She ran over to her sand-box, and picked up a plastic bucket.\u00a0 She filled it with her new-found treasure, then headed towards the door.\u00a0 Her mother and big brother Simon were nowhere to be seen, so as quietly as she could, she slipped into the house, ran to her room, and hid the bucket behind some toys in her closet.<\/p>\n<p>Once the excitement subsided, she remembered how hungry she was, despite having breakfast<\/p>\n<p>. . . .<\/p>\n<p>Behind a nearby home, Marie worked continuously picking berries, and digging up roots.\u00a0 Like so many in the colony, she knew food was going to become critical very soon, and if they didn\u2019t solve that issue, none of the rest was going to matter.\u00a0 But, part of the reason she spent so much time outdoors is her home was overly darkened because of the heavily tinted windows.\u00a0 She had tinted them just before the Freeze so she could take a nap.\u00a0 Now, it was difficult to see inside, even during the day.\u00a0 When she had a full basket, she walked back to her home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow did you do today, Marie?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPretty good, really.\u00a0 I came across some bushes with lots of berries; the kind we know are safe to eat.\u00a0 I must have somehow missed them yesterday.\u00a0 But, my back is very sore from all the bending over.\u00a0 I\u2019m not used to doing so much manual labor.\u00a0 Oh Henry, I\u2019m really concerned we may not make it through this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf everyone pitches in as much as you do, we will do fine.\u00a0 I\u2019m very proud of you, but perhaps you are overdoing it a bit.\u00a0 Especially at first.\u00a0 My arms and shoulders hurt from gathering wood today.\u00a0 I think we need to take it slowly to start, and let our bodies adjust.\u00a0 In the long run, it will be good for our health.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI suppose you are right, so I guess I\u2019ve done enough for one day.\u201d\u00a0 Marie started to take off her dirty clothes as she headed for the recycling bin.\u00a0 \u201cOops, I was about to toss these clothes.\u00a0 I guess we can\u2019t afford to do that anymore either.\u00a0 It\u2019s one more habit we have to break.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have to head to the stream and try to scrub them the best I can, but all I want to do is sleep.\u00a0 We don\u2019t even have soap.\u00a0 Sometimes I feel almost like we are cave people or something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>. . . .<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/smile.amazon.com\/Several-Worlds-Post-Nanotechnology-Adventure-ebook\/dp\/B076QG9P5M\/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1509555706&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=of+several+worlds+vetter&amp;dpID=51StjN8TunL&amp;preST=_SY445_QL70_&amp;dpSrc=srch\">here<\/a> to download the entire book onto your reading device, or <a href=\"https:\/\/smile.amazon.com\/Several-Worlds-Post-Nanotechnology-Adventure\/dp\/1978274440\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1509555706&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=of+several+worlds+vetter\">here<\/a> to purchase the paperback version. \u00a0I sincerely hope you enjoy it. \u00a0I would love to hear any feedback you may have.<\/p>\n<p>Steve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are a few excerpts from my novel, now available for both Kindle, and as a paperback (links below). \u00a0I&#8217;m donating all proceeds to charity. \u00a0There is considerable mystery in the story, so I&#8217;m limiting&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofseveralworlds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofseveralworlds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofseveralworlds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofseveralworlds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofseveralworlds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ofseveralworlds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37,"href":"https:\/\/ofseveralworlds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofseveralworlds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofseveralworlds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofseveralworlds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}