Print Me: Part III

(Story begins here.)

Dinner was hurriedly had, and Liubo quickly hooked up the power supply to the molecular printer. Double checking all the connections and assemblies against the mangled Chinglish instructions, he was satisfied at their correctness and stopped for a moment to stare at the technological marvel that sat in front of him at his main work bench. Hesitating just slightly with that remnant bit of doubt, Liubo flipped the switch on the power extender that he had connected the molecular printer to, before pressing on the literal Big Red Switch that was on the molecular printer itself.

The click of the switch engaging was soon overtaken by a low frequency hum that was close in frequency to that of the mains supply but was off in timbre just by that bit---within it was a kind of high pitched squeal that was not unpleasant.

Liubo looked on eagerly as the machine went through its power on self-test, beeping confidently at the end of it to indicate that there were no obvious issues that it had detected since the last time it was on. Next to the Big Red Switch was a small coloured LED display that showed a single line of ``Ready'' followed by some rasterised buttons on actions that could be done with it.

Liubo checked the instructions and followed it to navigate the on-screen menu to get to the more in-depth diagnostics and calibration. The instructions suggested that the in-depth diagnostics and calibration be run at least once a month or after every one hundred hours of operation, whichever came first. It explained that it was necessary to ensure that the internal quantum systems were within parameters that the built-in error correction could account for. Liubo knew that it was a vast improvement over the milli-second decoherence that the very first systems had. Sure, it did not have the same level of consistency and reliability as that of a filament-based 3D printer, but then again, it was using technology more complex than the electro-mechanical ones.

The on-screen menu was now on the in-depth diagnostics and calibration menu item, with an indication that it would take about an hour to complete, with an option to run a more superficial one that would take only ten minutes. It also said that it had detected that it was the first time that the molecular printer was activated in the local environment (`How did it know that?' thought Liubo to himself), and that the full version was recommended to ensure proper operation.

Liubo sighed and tapped on the rasterised button that said ``Run Full''. A confirmation screen came up and he replied positively to that as well. With the acknowledgements in place, the printer showed one final message reminding Liubo to not power off the machine for any reason while the in-depth diagnostics and calibration was taking place. The machine beeped off a final confirmation and went on its merry way, humming and shrieking at various durations throughout the whole hour.

Liubo wanted to go away and do something else, but felt obliged to sit around to observe---it was, after all, the first time that he was operating such a device. While doing research for the purchase, he had already learnt of the basic principles that guided the operation of the molecular printer. Among those principles included the astronomically small probability that the quantum-mechanical system house within could create a strange black hole that could cause a localised gravitational anomaly that would lead to a runaway effect of wiping out matter within a one kilometre radius, but there had been quite a few safety features built in to reduce the likelihood of that happening to even lower than the probability of being simultaneously struck by lightning while getting knocked down by a car off a mountain road with a shark biting on one's left ankle.

In short, it was safe to use, but the novelty of the device could not draw Liubo away from it.

After staring at the printer for nearly ten minutes, Liubo finally decided that there was nothing to observe from the outside while the printer was going through its diagnostics and calibration, and that it was probably a better use of his time to look for molecules to print with it.

Liubo pulled up his laptop from one of the other tables, and turned to the molecular printer owners' forum, where other enthusiasts of molecular printing hung out and shared their knowledge and gossip.

Among those was some printing instructions for some interesting molecules.

(Story continues here.)