In the modern world the quest for knowledge is premised on the belief that the natural world is nothing more than a vast machine. Since it is merely a machine, learning how it works entails disassembly, breaking things down into their constituent parts. Unfortunately for the things themselves, this is something of a downgrade from the ways they were once understood, everything from trees, to rivers, to people. Nothing is exempt. Now, because they are just things, they can be reassembled in novel ways.
