Innocent Objects The rock pencil and the Cray space heater are innocent objects in that our misunderstanding is entirely attributable to the heuristics we choose.  There is another class of objects from the hand of man that intentionally deceive as to purpose.  The tank decoy, the sword-cane, the smuggler's hollowed bible, the list seems only limited by our wonderfully devious imaginations.  This class of object holds a particular horror and excitement for me as a believer in words.  We do construct reality every second, sometimes with utterly nefarious purposes.