ELECTRONIC CLAY


Switching between tools can be tedious. It would be great to have just one wrench that grows or shrinks to fit any nut or bolt. A screwdriver that can change between flat and Phillips at the press of a button. One day, far in the future, programmable matter will make that possible. Programmable matter refers to microscopic robots that communicate with each other and move around to form macroscopic structures, similar to the behavior of ants joining together to form bridges. The structure can take on almost any form, such as a wrench or screwdriver. Each robot is an independent, mobile computer that is instructed and powered wirelessly. When not activated, the programmable matter might resemble sand or clay; Carnegie Mellon University researchers like to use the term “claytronics”. On command, the tiny robots rearrange themselves into a designated structure and increase the strength of their electric bonds for structural rigidity. If you have enough programmable matter, then you can make much more than small tools.

Sculpture art might be revolutionized by this technology. As an artist completes a sculpture, the structural information can be saved and shared over the internet. Anyone else with programmable matter can download the sculpture's form and have an exact claytronic replica as easily as one might print a painting today. If programmable matter could change color, texture, and firmness, then it could replace just about every household item. Imagine furniture that can morph into any shape. Whenever desired, a living room could melt and reshape into a dining room, bedroom, etc. With advanced claytronics, a one-room apartment can have the functional versatility of a mansion. Why stop at furniture? Perhaps such a room could simulate any imaginable environment, indeed an achievement very close to the holodeck as seen on the Enterprise. With color and continuous motion, conventional video games and 3D television would become obsolete. Who knows what the military might do with this technology?

The potentially extreme versatility of claytronics has interesting consequences for the economy. Most inedible products in the private market could be replaced as programmable matter can take any form. Much of the manufacturing industry could eventually go out of business or adapt to producing claytronics. Although expensive at first, claytronics might save money in the long run with their multipurpose capabilities. What would our economy be like when people just download whatever products they want?

By the time claytronics are widely used, perhaps brain scanning and analysis technologies will have been sufficiently developed to easily “read minds”. Combining these technologies would allow someone to mentally visualize an object and have it created in the physical world out of programmable matter. If thoughts could be linked to matter in such a way, the possibilities would be endless. Physical avatars could make telepresence more realistic than ever before. How cool would it be to manipulate your environment just by thinking? But what if someone else manipulated that environment? In the wrong hands, claytronics could create real life supervillains. Sinisterly programmed artificial intelligences could get out of control with shape-shifting bodies. Although this technology is in its infancy right now, “grey goo” and “terminators” might someday become real threats.

2 comments:

  1. An interesting article... an interesting imagination as well, keep up the good work. However, I doubt that a computer in control of the claytronics would suddenly turn on us. Why would it?

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  2. Re: Anonymous

    Thanks for your feedback. I was thinking about a terrorist organization or enemy government designing an artificial intelligence with the purpose of using claytronics as a weapon. As far as a benign AI becoming rampant, there is a relevant post at Rocketpunk Manifesto.

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