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Chapter 23 - Deletion is connective in its blind mechanics

                    

THE STORY OF DEL - Delete

"Her name is Pilù and along with bananas she's fond of fruits, leaves, roots, and sometimes - especially in the mating season - other primates. So be careful!"
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"Pilù, Pilù, I love you! Don't eat me, I love you!"
For reasons unknown, Pilù fell instantly and madly in love with Del. The French call it a 'coup de foudre,' a bolt of lightning, but this was worse: Cupid had fired a bazooka. Monkey love is very strong!
"Yes... I love you too, Pilù! Je t'aime mon petit chou-chou. Juula, now that I have found my kindred spirit, I can’t see myself bothering with keyboards anymore and so..."
"No, Del, please! Don't go turning me into something crazy! Wait! First let's FOCUS on what we have to do! Here, give Pilù this tablet."
She passed the chimp an iPad Mini with a text editor open on Shakespeare's Hamlet.
"Yes, sorry, you're right."
Unprompted, Pilù was already eagerly reaching for the device.
"Okay... Here, let's see what you write, my chou-chou, my cabbage-cabbage!"
"No, Del, what we're interested in is seeing what she CANCELS. Remember?"
Del, Delete? Editing?
"Ah yes, of course!"
"Okay, here's the famous soliloquy: 'to be, or not to be'...
Order Pilù to make a deletion."
"Ehm... I'll try... first a little practice, okay?"
He turned to Pilù and instructed: "Darling, sugar-pops, watch... You drag a finger and you spread the selection glow over the words, and then you hit BackSpace."
Pilù quickly got the hang of it - primates will be primates! - and after a couple of UNDOS she was ready for the real test.
"Oh, you're so very very smart and I love you too! Ready? On my three: One, two... wait!" Pilù streaked a finger from the word 'not' of 'or NOT to be' all the way to 'rub' - excluded - of 'ay, there's the RUB' and then diligently tapped BACKSPACE - immediately expecting and receiving an exaggerated show of affection from Del.
"Such a smart one! Not even an Australian Shepherd can come close!"
Before the love talk could degenerate, Juula intervened and with a twitch of the nose, like Samantha of the ancient 'Bewitched' series, made Pilù disappear from Del's loving arms.
"Hey!
"Focus Del! Focus! Pilù's deletion is proof of something fundamental. Can you guess?"
"That in monkey language 'to be or rub' makes sense?"
"Not even close! All right watch... I'll tap in 'undo' and Pilù's selection will return."
"It says 82 words in all."
"That's beside the point."
"Hint, please!"
"Concentrate. Think of something so obvious that it's almost too stupid to notice."
"Oh uh... well..."
And that's when Del saw Connective Editing in all its absurdly obvious splendor! 
"Deletion is connective in its blind mechanics!"

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