Very funny Max I think I’d better take a closer look Is your microscope still on All yours buddy I hurry over to Jessie’s desk and put the shiny grain onto her microscope plate Angling the lens toward it I lean over the microscope I can now see the microchip up close It’s one of those extremely old ones with blobs of solder and actual metal inside it From what I know about microchips this one must be at least 300 years old As I’m squinting into the microscope I feel something tapping against my leg I look down and see Oscar peering up at me with sad eyes Sorry Oscar I say Of course you can have a look too 5
I pick him up and he looks into the microscope with his mouth wide open Does it look familiar I ask him He shakes his head vigorously Do you think you can use the Splinternet to find out what it is I ask him Oscar shrugs and looks up at me with his big electronic eyes He doesn’t seem very confident that the Splinternet is going to be able to help us I have a feeling it’s too old for the Splinternet too I say but why don’t we find out I put Oscar down on the floor and take the strange ricey device out of the microscope He angles his scanner toward it and makes a soft whirring noise First he prints a little plastic 6
photo of it and then he beams a glowing green square into the air above his back I know what this means he’s uploading an image of the item to the Splinternet Jessie and I stare at the green square barely able to breathe For about 30 seconds we watch a pair of eyes darting from side to side in the square That’s the Splinternet telling us it’s searching its databases for matching images After a few seconds a frowning monkey face appears in the square The Splinternet seems to be telling us it doesn’t recognize the item You were right Oscar I say That thing’s so old the Splinternet doesn’t even know what it is 7
Well at least we know it was made before the year 2037 says Jessie She’s definitely right about that The year 2037 was when the old internet melted down due to a massive solar flare That same year the Splinternet was set up to replace it The Splinternet is much faster and more powerful than the internet ever was if you ask it the right questions 8
