Standing between the CEO and the machine, Madeline faced her lone audience member and cleared her throat a little before saying, “Allow me to welcome you formally, Mr. Matsuoka, and thank you for your patience. You have been most gracious.

“Now that we are ready to begin I will talk you through the process you are about to see. Please feel free to stop me if you have any questions and I will answer them to the best of my ability. But for now I will explain what the technicians are doing and then we will begin.

“First the technicians will introduce several raw materials to the machine. These are the basic building blocks of a typical microchip. Notably among them we have this solid piece of material.” With that she produced what appeared to be a small blackish-green coin from her pocket, holding it up between her finger and thumb. It was a tiny piece of silicon half the size of a penny.

“Matsuoka-san, please note that I am holding this silicon in my bare hands without wearing gloves. I am sure I do not need to tell you that doing this just before using a piece of silicon to make a chip using current chip manufacturing methods would most certainly introduce all kinds of foreign impurities to the microchip being built. Leading inevitably to disastrous results for the chip’s efficacy. Because of this fact, Matsuoka Industries and all of her competitors observe strict precautions both before and during the manufacturing process. Expensive precautions.”

The CEO looked stern as Madeline emphasized that last statement. Behind her, the technicians activated a control on the ugly machine and a seam around the equator of the golden sphere twisted and unlocked. Two of the techs then heaved the top half of the big dome open on the large steel hinge it was mounted on. As the meter-wide sphere cleft neatly in half along its equator, a perfectly polished hollow interior was revealed. Smooth gold shining brightly: the most expensive globe in the world.

Turning, Madeline walked over to the open orb and simply tossed the tiny piece of silicon into it with practiced nonchalance, raising Matsuoka’s eyebrows at her indifference to the rigorous cleanliness and precision that was typically the hallmark of all microchip manufacture. For even a single speck of dust in the inner workings of a microchip would render it useless.