"turtles all the way down": "an expression of the problem of infinite regress. The saying alludes to the mythological idea of a World Turtle that supports a flat Earth on its back. It suggests that this turtle rests on the back of an even larger turtle, which itself is part of a column of increasingly large turtles that continues indefinitely."

"infinite regress": "an infinite series of entities governed by a recursive principle that determines how each entity in the series depends on or is produced by its predecessor."

"cognitive dissonance": "the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change."

"platonic ideal": "a philosophical theory, concept, or world-view, attributed to Plato, that the physical world is not as real or true as timeless, absolute, unchangeable ideas."

Husband was right about the computer being useful. I could sit with it in the workshop and look at the educational site while he took apart and put back together the first bicycle he bought. The metal rods in the wheels, which he calls "spokes", seemed to take some study for him. And he is good at discussing things while working with his hands, which I needed from him because there were topics the site did not cover.

"Husband."

"Yes, my love."

"I am reading about atomic theory."

"Cool. Is it making sense to you?"

"I understand what the site says. I understand now what you meant by a periodic table."

He smiled as he fiddled with a spoke. "But...?"

"I need to...make it fit with what I know. I need to...coordinate..."

"Reconcile."

"...Yes. Reconcile the idea of atoms with aether. Because everything here is made of atoms, but we harvest crystallizations of aether. How do atomic things combine with aetheric things?"

"What makes you think they're different?"

"Earth things are made of atoms."

"And what are atoms made of?"

"Protons, neutrons and electrons."

"And what are protons, neutrons and electrons made of?"

I looked at my screen. "Fermions and bosons."

"And what are those made of?"

"Wikipedia calls them 'elementary particles'. They are not made of other things."

"That may be, but geometry says any time you have two points in space there's at least one point between them." He tapped the sides of his hub with his finger. "If it exists in space at all it must have sides, so there must be a point inside. So what do I find if I crack a fermion open?"

"I...do not know."

"I mean, maybe it's turtles all the way down, but still..."

"Turtles?"

Husband waved his hand without looking up. "Not important. My point is, if you break things down far enough, who's to say you won't find aether?"

"You are saying atoms are made of aether?"

"I'm saying it's possible."

"But Eorzean things are not made of atoms."

"How do you know?"

"Because...no one...ever...spoke of it?"

"To us, you mean. Because we really needed to know the molecular structure of the dragon we were fighting."

He was peering intently at the hub of the wheel as he twisted a spoke back and forth. My thoughts were not as easy to manipulate. I asked, "Are you saying that if we look closely enough at an apple we harvest we will see atoms?"

"Maybe. Maybe that's how aether naturally manifests itself. Or maybe Earth people would see atoms because they expect to see atoms, and aether manifests to meet their expectations."

"But you do not know."

"No..." He looked up at me and smiled. "...and neither do you. So you don't know that Earth things aren't made of aether, and therefore you don't know that Earth things can't be aetherically manipulated."

"I have...doubts."

"I know. I warned you about that. But like I said once before, if an observed phenomenon doesn't match science, it's science that has to change. Have you desynthesized anything here you didn't make?"

"A pillow. I got cotton cloth."

"Okay. So you know you can manipulate Earth matter just like Eorzean matter. Don't let Earth knowledge tell you what's impossible...only what's possible."

Husband has talked about this sort of thing, the difference between ideas and the difficulty keeping both in one's head. He calls it "cognitive dissonance", and he was afraid of me feeling it as I learned more about this world. It is strange that I can do something, and know that I can do something, and yet question my ability to do something based on someone else's words. I would never have doubted what I did in Eorzea, and I am doing the very same things here, so why would I wonder if I am able to do them?

I take out an apple from inventory. It is a manifestation of an apple. It has shape, it has scent, it has color, it has flavor. Whether or not it has atoms does not change that it is an apple. It is an apple I harvested from an aetheric harvesting node. Whether or not it is a manifestation of aether does not change that it is an apple. So, as Husband said, whether or not it has atoms does not change that it is an aetheric manifestation. Or the other way around.

People build things using the ideas of atoms. Atoms are built into molecules. Molecules are taken apart and the atoms from them are made into other molecules. If atoms are aether, then people are performing aetheric manipulation without even knowing it. Yet I do not think I have been performing atomic manipulation. But, as Husband said, I do not know.

Husband wants his bicycle project worked on, but I need to reconcile atoms and aether. So I am looking at plastic.

This world has a lot of plastic, and a lot of things are made from it. Boxes and bottles and bags and blankets. Pipes and plates and purses. Fabric and filters and fluid containers. And the fluid containers are different, since gasoline can eat some plastic and not other plastic.

Plastic can be different in how hard it is, how clear it is, what color it is, how easy it is to bend or roll or fold or break. Plastic windows are hard and clear. Saran wrap is soft and clear. A plastic chair is hard and not clear. Plastic can melt and burn and yet last a long time without rotting.

The educational site said that atoms and molecules can go together in large, complicated ways. Iron is made up of many iron atoms in a blocky shape. Diamonds are made of many carbon atoms in a different blocky shape. Liquid and gas are made of smaller molecules that are not connected together.

What all plastic seems to have in common, according to Wikipedia, is long stringy molecules called polymers. That they are long and that there are many of them makes plastic strong. That they are thin makes plastic flexible. That they are often hydrogen and carbon makes plastic burnable.

This helps me understand what I need plastic to be, and what I need to look for in the corn oil to make it. I cannot see the molecules in the corn oil, but I can think of what must be there, and what form I need them to be in, and therefore what manifestation of aether needs to occur.

This is better than working blindly, like we did making cornoline, trying to make something that had the right properties rather than something that was something in particular. Though we did make cornoline, so aether can be made to be what we want, but perhaps if what we want is simple enough then making it will be simple too.

Husband says science is all about observations, so I am writing about what I do and what I observe.

I am starting with one of the recipes that made corn oil sludge. It is like the exploding latex recipe: it is a successful recipe for something we do not know the use of. Perhaps, like the exploding latex, I can find the use.

I have made some sludge from that recipe. I am calling it Sludge 1. I used that to make a different kind of sludge using an earth shard. I am calling it Sludge 1.1.

I have made Sludge 1.2, Sludge 1.3 and Sludge 1.4. They are all thicker than Sludge 1, but they still are sludge. They are all a thick liquid that I can squeeze through my fingers. I once again smell like corn oil.

Things made from Sludge 2 are more like water rather than less.

Sludge 3.7 was a more sticky sludge than the others. It stretched when I pulled a clump of it apart. Perhaps it contains the polymers I have been looking for.

I have been working outside the workshop because of the corn oil smell. Sam came and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was making plastic. He asked me if it was explosive. I told him I did not think so. He told me to call it an art project if anyone asks.

Sludge 3.7.4 is stringy. Pulling it apart leaves long strings. Perhaps this contains long stringy molecules.

Sludge 3.7.4.5 is stringy and tough. It does not pull apart as easily. Perhaps this contains a lot of stringy molecules.

Sludge 3.7.4.5.3 is more solid. It stretches a little, but I cannot squeeze it through my fingers. It holds together. It is not completely hard, but it is not totally soft. It is somewhere between grey and brown, but it seems to glow if I hold it up toward the sun. It may serve like the rubber we make from latex, that we can then make into whatever plastic thing we need.

I showed it to Husband. He called it "platonic plastic".

"Platonic?"

"Guy named Plato from a few thousand years ago believed there were ideal forms of things that everything that existed on Earth was a reflection of. Like there'd be a perfect chair that all chairs reflected the chairness of." He squeezed Sludge 3.7.4.5.3 in different directions. "So maybe this is what all plastic has in common."

I was happy to have something to show for the day I had spent crafting and mixing and squeezing. I was happier to go back to the house and wash away the feeling of the things I had made.

Perhaps Husband knows how to make my computer not smell like corn oil.