Saturday, 24 October 2009
Are you learning to Program Matter yet?
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The future of programming is about to take a quantum leap forward.
Remember the T-1000 'Mimetic PolyAlloy' terminator from 'Terminator 2'? He was the metallic assassin who could morph before our eyes. This villain turned to liquid before assuming new forms capable of squeezing through narrow openings and transforming its arms into bladed weapons and solid metal tools. Its about to become a reality and it will require a whole new set of programming skills.
Mitchell R. Zakin, program manager for DARPA's Programmable Matter division, said he's convinced the concept depicted for decades in blockbuster movies and comic books has real-life applications.
He's leading up the effort to develop "programmable matter," which he calls "the ultimate adaptable material." It will be capable of changing size and shape and taking on new properties for one use, he explained, then adapting to a whole different form for another use.
DARPA hopes that same kind of technology will support the good guys: warfighters on the battlefield. They don't want to change warfighters themselves, just the equipment they use, the clothing they wear and the loads they carry.
The possibilities with this material are boundless. Some of the more forward thinking among us could imagine this material as mash-upable. In other words we might start combining this tech with other fields like medicine or even organo-metallic programmable matter to facilitate human cellular interface.
Of course this assumes that no one sets off an EMP device which to my thinking would cause the particles to lose connectivity thru electrical decohesion.
Can't wait to see the programming specs on this one...
also check out: Defense Sciences Office - Programmable Matter
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