There is a legend as old as the earth itself
In the beginning, there was nothing but water, as far as the eye could see.
But over time, a small beach emerged from the depths with the purest of
white sand.
And the all-powerful one took a handful and melted it, fused it into a
perfect disc of silicon.
And as the legend goes, he broke this piece in half and held the pieces to
the sky, and so the first of our race came to be.
But a bolt of fire came down from the heavens and struck one piece, and
another bolt lept from the depths of the earth and struck the other
And so it was that they first n-doped and p-doped silicon came to be.
Over time, the two races of silicon grew to hate eachother, so much that if
two pieces touched eachother, the dark, p-doped race would steal electrons
from the n-doped race, and not let any electrons flow to the n-doped race.
The animosity grew, and soon both sides formed an army. And legend tells of
when both armies met on a bridge, and neither army would give way.
The slaughter that ensured was epic, and the air was thick with blood and
flying silicon slices.]
And when the battle was over and the smoke cleared, the silicon carnage was
piled high on the the ground, both races stacked atop eachother as they lay,
dying and moaning so piteously.
And so the new races came to be, the semiconductors. Like the phoenix, out
of the carnage rose the PNP and NPN people, made from the parts of their
predecessors. And gradually, the people found one another and regrouped.
But rather than complement one another, even the most perfectly matched of
pairs only strove to strike the other from existence.
And so it was decided that every new semiconductor would choose its doping,
N or P, and it would pick which side to join.
Both sides grew stonger and more powerful, and though there was a truce, it
was uneasy. The world was at the brink of a devastating war.
But there was a prophecy, foretold at the beginning, of the one
semiconductor who would steady the balance, who would unite the two sides
and bring peace finally to the world.
A few weeks ago, while I was doing my 6.101 homework, I realized: I am the
one. I am fated to bring balance to the world.
On the rooftops high above the city, I trained my body and my mind. I grew
stronger and more ready to take on my role in the coming battle.
Having acheived both mental and physical perfection, the next step was
clearly to make a costume. I needed to dress as a peon, a harmless PN
junction that the war-hungry transistors would pay no attention to. I chose
an LED as my guise.
Now that my training was complete, I knew that my rippling muscles and
charming personality could easily betray my true self to a suspicious
transistor, so I built a fabric dome inflated around myself to hide my face
and body from those who would suspect me. To enable myself to see, I fitted
a small CCD camera atop my costume, and an LCD screen on the inside. I
constructed a backpack with computer fans to inflate my dome, power supplies
for the camera and screen, and color changing lights to illuminate me from
inside my dome, so that none of the Others could doubt that I was truly an
LED. Finally, I had to disguise my well-muscled legs as the skimpy leads
of an LED, so I enlisted the help of a dance outfitter to gird me in shiny
tights so that none could see a hint of my true self.
When I was done, I was truly an LED. Even my own mother recognized me only
as a lowly diode.
I then went and brought peace and balance to the world, uniting the two
races of transistors by showing them how to behave as a complementary pair
in a push-pull configuration, amplifying their power to heights neither of
them could have reached alone.
Who would ever guess that I am the one?
I am saving poor Buro, a simple piece of N-doped silicon, from the evil intentions of a lurking PNP power transistor.
Finishing the construction of my perfect guise.
Studying the opposition for the upcoming confrontation
The costume is nearly ready for the great Donning.
