In the late eighties, I was at a church service on the Sunday when they talk about the budget (usually once a year in mainline Protestant churches). After the talk, ten members of the congregation marched up front each carrying a sign with one letter on it. They arranged themselves to spell

I realized then that the use of computers had changed the way we think about spaces. Now a space is something (a particular character) instead of nothing.

This meant Mathematica could use the space as a symbol for multiplication, and everyone under 50 understands it.