Imagine tracing the surface of the earth as it would look from a distance of one hundred kilometers out in space. The line goes up and down over trees and hillocks, buildings and—in a parking lot somewhere—a Volkswagen. On that scale, the surface is just a bump among many other bumps, a bit of randomness. Or imagine looking at the Volkswagen from closer and closer, zooming in with magnifying glass and microscope. At first the surface seems to get smoother, as the roundness of bumpers and hood passes out of view. But then the microscopic surface of the steel turns out to be bumpy itself, in an
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