|
Programmable matter is probably not the
next technological revolution, nor even perhaps the one
after that. But it's coming, and when it does, it will change
our lives as much as any invention ever has. Imagine being
able to program matter itself -- to change it, with the
click of a cursor, from hard to soft, from paper to stone,
from fluorescent to super-reflective to invisible. Supported
by organizations ranging from Levi Strauss and IBM to the
Defense Department, solid-state physicists in laboratories
at MIT, Harvard, Sun Microsystems, and elsewhere are currently
creating arrays of microscopic devices called "quantum
dots" that are capable of acting like programmable
atoms. They can be configured electronically to replicate
the properties of any known atom and then can be changed,
as fast as an electrical signal can travel, to have the
properties of a different atom. Soon it will be possible
not only to engineer into solid matter such unnatural properties
as variable magnetism, programmable flavors, or exotic chemical
bonds, but also to change these properties at will.
Wil McCarthy visits the laboratories and
talks with the researchers who are developing this extraordinary
technology; describes how they are learning to control its
electronic, optical, thermal, magnetic, and mechanical properties;
and tells us where all this will lead. The possibilities
for how we live and work are truly magical.
Wil McCarthy is a novelist, the science
columnist for the SciFi channel, and the Chief Technology
Officer for Galileo Shipyards, an aerospace research corporation.
He has written articles for various publications, including
Wired. He lives in Lakewood, Colorado.
|
