The physical vapor deposition of a relationship
Last weekend, I was out with my friends, having a good time. There was drinking, and a lot of heated/passionate discussion. About world issues, nationality issues, and finally on issues related to perception of relationships. During this conversation, I came up with an analogy on relationships.
The topic of dicussion was, what is the incentive to get into a relationship. My point of view was, if you feel the other person is not someone you will marry, you get out of the relationship. It does not make sense to work on a relationship you don't think will turn into lawful union.
The opposing view however, was that you cannot think of marriage when you get into the relationship. You have to grow in it, make the relationship grow and then, if alls well, you get married.
Seems to me like two perfectly legitimate approaches and the choice is matter of personality. But what I did realize was that, a relationship building follows a procedure similar to physical vapor deposition of metals onto devices.
In the process of device fabrication, it is often required to deposit metals on the surface of the device. The idea is pretty simple. You put your device upside-down on top of a pot containing the metal. Then you heat the metal until it evaporates, and this metal vapor rises and gets deposited on your device in a monitored fashion.
The important point is, the act of boiling the metal is protocoled. It is not like boiling a cup of tea, where you put water on the stove and don't bother to check back until you hear some bubbling. The heating process for melting the metal first involves lowering the chamber pressure. At low pressures, the boiling point of solids is lowered. This facilitates the deposition. The vacuuming of the chamber also minimizes chances of impurities getting onto your device. Having pumped the chamber down, power is applied to heat the metal and make it boil. The application of power is gradual and divided into two distinct rise times and two soak times, followed by the actual deposition time. The idea is to ramp up the temperature of the metal in a controlled fashion, raise it to a reasonably high level, and then soak the metal in that state. This is followed by a second round of rise time, another soak time, and finally a shutter opens to allow for the vapors to rise up to the device. This very well-planned procedure gives rise to a uniform layer deposition of metal on the device and works pretty darn well, everytime.
So the point of all this technical jargon, now follows. The above procedure can also find application in building relationships of the union kind. First you have to create the circumstances for a successful relationship. Just like you create a vacuum in the chamber before deposition, you need to create some sort of a vacuum in your life. Whether it be lack of activities, or more spare time, or lack of good company. This is followed by choosing the person you find yourself interested in, just like you select what metal you want to deposit. What follows is a controlled growth of involvement, through multiple rise times and then soak times in the relationship. Sort of like building terraced fields. Incidents happen, characters are revealed, and this takes you through rise times of the association. Every soak time provides an oppurtunity to look at the graph and evaluate the direction of the relationship. If you are dissatisfied, you pull the plug and head your own ways, or you wait eagerly for the next rise time to happen. And finally, just like when the metal is right for deposition, you open the shutter and let the union of metal to device happen, so would you pop the question of a lawful union with the other person involved.
The one big difference is, atleast for the elements of the periodic table, the duration of the two rise and soak times is well documented and highly repeatable. The big question is, what is a good duration for the rise and soak times in relationships, which involve the much more uncertain and unpredictable "human element".
The topic of dicussion was, what is the incentive to get into a relationship. My point of view was, if you feel the other person is not someone you will marry, you get out of the relationship. It does not make sense to work on a relationship you don't think will turn into lawful union.
The opposing view however, was that you cannot think of marriage when you get into the relationship. You have to grow in it, make the relationship grow and then, if alls well, you get married.
Seems to me like two perfectly legitimate approaches and the choice is matter of personality. But what I did realize was that, a relationship building follows a procedure similar to physical vapor deposition of metals onto devices.
In the process of device fabrication, it is often required to deposit metals on the surface of the device. The idea is pretty simple. You put your device upside-down on top of a pot containing the metal. Then you heat the metal until it evaporates, and this metal vapor rises and gets deposited on your device in a monitored fashion.
The important point is, the act of boiling the metal is protocoled. It is not like boiling a cup of tea, where you put water on the stove and don't bother to check back until you hear some bubbling. The heating process for melting the metal first involves lowering the chamber pressure. At low pressures, the boiling point of solids is lowered. This facilitates the deposition. The vacuuming of the chamber also minimizes chances of impurities getting onto your device. Having pumped the chamber down, power is applied to heat the metal and make it boil. The application of power is gradual and divided into two distinct rise times and two soak times, followed by the actual deposition time. The idea is to ramp up the temperature of the metal in a controlled fashion, raise it to a reasonably high level, and then soak the metal in that state. This is followed by a second round of rise time, another soak time, and finally a shutter opens to allow for the vapors to rise up to the device. This very well-planned procedure gives rise to a uniform layer deposition of metal on the device and works pretty darn well, everytime.
So the point of all this technical jargon, now follows. The above procedure can also find application in building relationships of the union kind. First you have to create the circumstances for a successful relationship. Just like you create a vacuum in the chamber before deposition, you need to create some sort of a vacuum in your life. Whether it be lack of activities, or more spare time, or lack of good company. This is followed by choosing the person you find yourself interested in, just like you select what metal you want to deposit. What follows is a controlled growth of involvement, through multiple rise times and then soak times in the relationship. Sort of like building terraced fields. Incidents happen, characters are revealed, and this takes you through rise times of the association. Every soak time provides an oppurtunity to look at the graph and evaluate the direction of the relationship. If you are dissatisfied, you pull the plug and head your own ways, or you wait eagerly for the next rise time to happen. And finally, just like when the metal is right for deposition, you open the shutter and let the union of metal to device happen, so would you pop the question of a lawful union with the other person involved.
The one big difference is, atleast for the elements of the periodic table, the duration of the two rise and soak times is well documented and highly repeatable. The big question is, what is a good duration for the rise and soak times in relationships, which involve the much more uncertain and unpredictable "human element".
posted by Riskit at 11:46 AM
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