Robot Composed of "Catoms" Can Assume Any Form 168
philetus writes "An article in New Scientist describes a robotic system composed of swarms of electromagnetic modules capable of assuming almost any form that is being developed by the Claytronics Group at Carnegie Mellon. 'The grand goal is to create swarms of microscopic robots capable of morphing into virtually any form by clinging together. Seth Goldstein, who leads the research project at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, in the US, admits this is still a distant prospect. However, his team is using simulations to develop control strategies for futuristic shape-shifting, or "claytronic", robots, which they are testing on small groups of more primitive, pocket-sized machines.'"
Re:Replicators!!! (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(Stargate)
Re:By Any Other Name (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Plague... (Score:3, Informative)
and that is "we didn't see this coming."
Sci-fi has been predicting this for seventy years, and I'm starting to really believe that it might be on the list with satellites and lasers of stuff that's actually going to happen in our lifetimes.