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Tech.Picts page 6

Logic and Servo 'Air Gels'

Bubble tech took the early discoveries of the electrical properties of carbon 60 fullerene molecules and advanced the science of spherical molecular electronics to its ultimate limit. Cylindrical molecules became conduits for electrons as well as photons and the photonic computer was created. These 'hollow' spherical bubble and cylinder shaped molecules were found to become suitable as building blocks for electronic circuits when other atoms having the desired electronic characteristics were inserted into the structures.

Of great interest to stormboarders and other users and builders of ultra-strong yet ultra-light machines the bubble tech constructions could be evacuated and left in vacuum or filled with a gas that is lighter than air and one was left with an electronic circuit or entire construction that was lighter-than-air.

Upon experimentation these carbon spheres and conduits with substituted or 'doped' atoms were found to be capable of all the known electronic and physical abilities of 'normal' semiconductors, which had made the transistor and integrated circuits of the late Twen'cen's electronic and computer revolution possible.

As the ability to construct numerous large molecules one atom at a time expanded, new discoveries were made including the discovery of very high temperature superconductors. Lasers covering the entire visible light spectrum became ubiquitous in the new society, and came to power a whole new era in virtual reality construction and massive high-speed data transfer.

Another great advance in technology came out of practical fullerene-type molecule bubble tech. The sphere and its cousin, the cylinder, are the two physically strongest mechanical shapes. Machine building took a great leap forward as the entire molecular structure of a machine or any construction could perform two or more functions. The structure of a building not just hold it up, the structual elements would also filter and conditon the air. Exterior walls would generate electricity from sunlight. Diamond-skinned beams and trusses formed from masses of molecular bubbles and cylinders would do all those functions and more while at the same time being stronger and many times lighter than steel and concrete. And, concrete and steel are only concrete and steel. They are not smart materials able to provide all the services and maintence of the structure as are bubbleTech structures. Gone was all the space in large structures that was wasted on plumbing, wires for communications, computing and power. Imagine just the great amount of space in a twen'Cen building lost to just air conditioning. Buildings rose to fantastic heights and clusters of megaBuildings created their own weather systems.

A building's outer walls could absorb radiation in any form and generate electricity. Specially doped groups of molecules could sense temperature change and electronically exchange heat or cold from or into the building. The electricity generated from the absorbed radiations could then be used right away to generate interior lighting, which emanated directly from walls and ceilings without the need for bulbs. And the lifetime of the molecular lasers that powered light emitting wall and ceiling sections was estimated to be longer than the life of the building. Any excess electricity produced could be stored for later use in bubble tech storage capacitors that were also a part of the building's structure. And the building could produce power directly as the flexing of its structure compressed and expanded other specialized bubble tech molecules that absorbed or ejected electrons when deformed.

Voice operated computer control circuits were built right into the walls and beams and other parts of a structure and the truly smart structure was created.

As certain molecules will contract or expand when exposed to certain electric voltages air handling and filtering was also built right into the fabric of the structure itself. Walls and floors became smart structures that could sense an impact such as a falling person, and as the floors and walls could react electronically in mere trillionths of a second they were programmed to become soft by loosening the attraction between molecules electronically. It became hard to hurt oneself by falling or running into something as everything became to be fabricated from what was called soft-steel. Layers of impact-sensing structural bubble tech could be placed between servo and logic bubble tech layers and anything could become a 'soft' object, incapable of harming someone. The world became a pillow. A voice programmable pillow.

Two vehicles could crash into each other leaving a crumpled mess that would slowly reform to the shape it was before the impact. As their smart soft-steel structures could sense and react to the impact at many times the speed of even the faster cars coming together as well as also react to the passenger's impact inside the vehicles, the smart steel could be programmed to soften certain areas while strengthening others to protect the occupants.

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Copyright (c) 1996-2002 Lee Skidmore