Chapter 17

White space is a design element.

I awoke to a bright white, featureless space.

Like some of those cel phone commercials, among others. Nothing around me. Not even the chairs in Matrix. Nothing.

What the hell?!?

There was gravity, I was standing. Dressed in my regular street clothes, the temperature was decidingly neutral. Neither warm nor cold. Plenty of air, but no wind.

What to consider here?

Tried walking. This was normal, but I stopped quickly, since I didn't know that I wouldn't step into a sudden "white" hole as well. I didn't know what I didn't know.

Scffed my shoe on the "ground." It left a mark. Interesting. Another scuff, another mark.

Searched my pockets to see what they held. Normal wallet, coins, comb, pen, Leatherman.

Took out the multi-tool and put the knife blade out for use. Bent down to find something solid and pushed the knife blade in. It went in and quickly my hand did as well, following the blade. I leaned back quickly and pulled them both out. The multi-tool was still in one piece, as was my hand. Stepped on that point and it was just as solid as before.

I noticed that the mark hadn't changed, however. I walked a couple of steps away and saw that it remained where it was. Walked back to it and scuffed again on top of the original mark. Another scuff resulted, in a different pattern than before, but adding to the first mark.

So I could mark, but couldn't cut. Add, but not subtract.

The pen. I pulled it out, uncapped it and held it up in midair. Making a slight movement of my arm produced a resulting mark in the middle of the air.

Touching the mark found that it stood out, solid in the air. A fine line by itself.

I drew three other straight lines to join this one, making a square. Touching this, the edges were just as sharp as before, but the area within it was now solid. The other side was just as solid - like plastic, not glass, since I was able to push it and feel some resistance, but not rigidity.

That was something new as a thought. Taking pen in hand, I then stepped to one side of it and drew three lines to make a surface perpendicular to the original. The form was solid, the edges sharp. The two sides could be pushed in toward each other, but sprang back to their original form.

Another idea. I completed drawing a freehand cube. The form was now solid on all sides, perhaps hollow, perhaps not. But it had space and was as three-dimensional as my own body.

I then drew a cone with two lines for the uppersides and a circle perpendicular to these. The shape became a cone, suddenly shaded, just as the cube - not identically white on all sides, but lighter toward me and shaded away from me.

I touched the cone, poking it - it moved away from me. I took my thumb and forefinger to grasp the cube, finding that I was able to change its position. Whereever I left it, it stayed there. If I walked away from it, it was still in the same position as when I came back to it. Put it on the floor and I nearly tripped on it as I came quickly back.

So I drew a three-D shelf and put both of these objects on them. Then drew a 3D chair to sit in, replete with cushion so that I wouldn't cut myself on the sharp edges.

Not a bad life if you like white objects with black outlines.

Hmmm. Color was another thing entirely.

So I drew a big-ended watercolor brush, then a palette. Grabbed the brush and rubbed the end of it against my jeans. The tip turned blue with color. Swabbed this on the palette and it left a blue mark. My jeans were left unchanged.

Thinking, I pulled out my wallet with all those credit cards in various colors, as well as my driver's license with picture and all other sorts of things with colors in it. The paintbrush was able to sample all of these and bring their colors to the palette.

I then grabbed the cube and painted the different sides different colors. It dried instantly. I was able to turn the cube in my hand and see how the faces were different. I put it back on the shelf and sat back in my white chair. I dabbled with the colors on the palette and created a light beige, then painted the cube this color. Adding some rose and blue, I darkened this until I had something resembling a deep red wood, and then painted the shelf this color, as well as the chair base, legs and uprights. I painted the cushion to match my jeans, then sat back down on it.

Essentially, this was a world ready to make.

I could go about with this, painting a landscape, then drawing a bulldozer, as well as other contruction tools to make this world my own.

But then, I thought of a different way. Let's see. First I drew an eraser to modify some of what I had drawn. Next, I took the pen and drew a marker, which I got colored by dipping the tip in the palette. This would give me some broad strokes.

Working from memory, I drew a computer box, a monitor, all the cables and carefully drew a keyboard, relying on my memory to letter the keys correctly. Drew a desk under it. Drew the mouse and all the cables, then colored these all beige (not original, but familiar). Drew an outlet on the floor and plugged in the power. Hitting the on button, I saw it boot up and launch the familar desktop. With the pen, I drew on some icons for 3D and paint programs I knew how to operate. Clicking on these, I was able to start the program, just like the "real" world.

Oops - no printer. Quickly rectified. Beige again (matching, you know). And a supply of paper. Now I could print off anything I wanted, so could modify my colors. But of course the pages were flat and limited to 8 1/2 by 11. Hmmm. Had to do something. Drew a sandwich and a drink to munch on. Colored them as a toasted ham-and-cheese, plus an iced tea, geting the condensation on the side as best I could.

Tasted pretty good, but it wasn't hot. So drew a side table and microwave to warm it up in.

Now, how was I going to go from flat to full-scale? Just making a large format printer might work if I wanted to cut and paste the different sides together or color something fairly fast, a whole side at a time.

I needed one of Calvin's "transmorgrafiers." That would do the trick. Let's see... OK, I big box with my broad marker. We'd update it a bit and put a control cable going over to the computer. Then pull up the 3D program and send the file over to it as a printing device. Set the controls on the box over to "auto" and -- a few thumps and other noise, then quiet.

I cautiously opened the door and let some sweet smelling smoke out. There in the box was the potted plant I had sent over.

That would do well for decorating the house, but I needed something bigger. Ok, time to get to work. Drew a tall ladder. Then thought for a bit and drew a sky-lift. Now I could draw a huge transmorgrifier. But then the thought hit me. I was still thinking pretty small.

Back to the computer. Looked like I needed some devices I hadn't seen before. No reason not to have them. Constructed them in the computer 3D program, outputed to the transmorgrafier. Pulled them out one by one and set them up in a triangle. Ran the cords over to another box I created, which in turn was connected to my PC. Let's hit the "execute" key.

Lights flashed in a stroboscopic effect. Suddenly the room was bathed in colored light, the whole of the white space now taking the shape of a computer office, with all the shelves, books and tables I needed to work. Doors, windows and animated country scenes outside those windows through the open blinds. I kept working at the computer, refining the scene and pressing enter everytime I got something else added. Books with titles appeared on the shelves, along with stereo equipment and surround speakers, desk lamps, networking devices, and everything else I could think of.

I put in the large format printer and also the framing supplies so I could run an art business. Added in the shipping supplies.

Got to work and put an office on the other side of this, through an added door, which had a long couch and large TV with a full set of speakers and stacks of DVD's, which appeared on demand through an interface panel on each arm of the couch. Wired through cables to my computer network in the next room, so that I could also see the movies through my computer in a window.

Then I put the farm beyond that and some of the landscape, so that I could then take my long walks. Made a laptop and PDA with its own knapsack, so that I could take these outside and via wireless, continue to make changes. The barn in this landscape became a transmorgrifier on its own, as various animals started coming out and clucking, barking, meowing, mooing and anything else they were supposed to. The trees sprouted from the ground, fully grown and clothed in leaves for a fine summer day. Shadows came out as the sun became distinct as a light source.

My world now was in existence, at least as far as what I wanted. I turned on the music, a collection of MP3's from my computerized entertainment center. A few clicks and an old movie started on a window on my computer screen while the stereo sound came from the other room as well as this one.

Life was complete, or nearly so. I had everything I wanted to do, all laid out and working. Better than most. A few clicks and I had a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom - all of life's necessities.

That was fine for me, but now I simply had the closed world to my own specifications instead of someone else's. Not bad, but for all the books and movies and computer work I could do, there was something still missing. A few clicks and I had an Internet connection via broadband. Just had to press the "connect" button.

I paused. The results of this action would actually bring the whole rest of the world into existence, all its randomity and perplexing contradictions. I'd have news, good, bad and ugly. There would be the murders, the injustices, the winning and losing teams and political parties.

As well, this would mean my choice and powers over them would be limited. If I didn't enable this function, I could create at will all the interesting things which I would want.

People was the hanging point. Were I to create people to inhabit this world with me, they would only ever be some version of myself. I could give them different quirks and even work up some AI subprogram which would enable them to learn from my actions and those of each other, however they would still be limited to the base data which would be provided from me.

Factually, even the books on these shelves could only contain data I had already studied or had developed on my own. I could study no new books or even pick up the books I had set aside. There could be no logging into any online bookstore and picking up any book I hadn't already read. Nothing here could exist unless I had already experienced it. While I could survive here indefinately, it would ultimately become boring as I exhausted every possible combination of the data I had already had. Moreover, even the algebraic possibility of never quite reaching all the possible combinations wouldn't prevent this boredom. Sooner or later, according to fuzzy logic, I would have exhausted the bulk of the possible combinations, even on a random-factor basis while outlawing repeat of any particular combination - I would be dealing with split nuances after awhile, and with the cross-comparison of results (especially since some of these results would preclude other combinations) I would ultimately get terminally bored.

Life depends on diversity for its expansion and continuance via any of it species and humankind in particular.

This was a one-way toggle, however. Once I pushed it, there would be no going back, no way to regain the purity of my own created universe. I would let the daemons of Pandora's box out to both haunt and thrill me, to give me subject for emotional response in all ranges from low to high.

There would be no turning back. I'd get people in my life again who were real, but also inherit their real problems. However, I would have something to live for, plus an unending series of puzzles to solve. There would be companionship, friendship and also potential enemies and their illogical hatred.

But such was life.

So I hit "connect."