By DENNIS WYATT

The 209 staff

SAN JOSE — The Tech Museum of San Jose draws a wide array of reactions from adults.

Some think it is designed just for kids and technology challenged among those who are still trying to figure out how to program VCR players to those who believe it is a captivating way to spend a few hours.

So the best way to put it to the test was to visit it with a pair of 19-year-olds who have never know life without smartphones, the Internet, or flashy and intricate video games.

And  —over two hours of wandering through nine different technology galleries — it is safe to say it captivated their interest enough to satisfy even the X-Box Generation.

If you expect the Tech Museum to simply be all things Silicon Valley and biotech, guess again. It runs the gamut from a jet pack chair you can "ride" to get a feel of how astronauts in space move around to simple technology such as a foot operated pump that works much like a Stairmaster to allow impoverished Third World people to have clean drinking water from the ground.

The technology museum's mission is to show visitors how technology is changing — and can change — the world around them as well as their own lives.