Blogging Project Phase 2 Prey#1

"I saw what appeared to be a small, swirling cloud of dark particles. It looked like a dust devil, one of those tiny tornado- like clusters that moved over the ground, spun by convection currents rising from the hot desert floor. Except that this cloud was black, and it had some definition- it seemed to be pinched in the middle, making it look a bit like an old fashioned coke bottle. But it didn't hold that shape consistently. The appearance kept shifting, transforming." (pg.141-142) "It was, I thought, a problem no one had ever imagined before. In all the years that I had been programming agents, the focus had been on getting them to interact in a way that produced useful results. It never occurred to us that there might be a large control issue, or a question of independence. Because it simply couldn't happen." (pg. 143)

I knew that there was something suspicious going on at this plant. The main character's name is Jack, and he has a wife that works at this facility, and ever since she began working there she has been acting weird. His wife got into a car crash, and when she did she was taken to the hospital, and while she was hurt and not thinking well she kept saying black cloud over and over. I find it amazing that a bunch of biologist's allowed this nanotechnology to grow into a swarming cloud that cannot be controlled. The fact that this has the ability to swarm is also crazy. The biotechnology that is being worked on at this plant may be harmful to people, but they have not called in for help from the government. There is also a literary technique being used, and that is a simile. It is used to describe the swarm of the nano particles as a dust devil, and an old fashioned coke bottle. The purpose of this passage is to foreshadow that this nanotechnology swarm will be a big part of this novel. The fact that this is something that no one has ever seen before also convey's to the reader that there is something extremely unusual going on at this plant. The nano particles are almost human like because they can independently move, and are no longer controlled by the people that created it. The overall effect of this is to force us to believe that this cloud of nano-particles will be a huge mystery to the worker's at this plant. Our depictions of the future reveal about the present that we will accidentally create a man-mad thing that has never been seen before.