Saturday, November 08, 2003

Hacking Matter author Wil McCarthy interviewed I visited http://www.scifi.com and saw a link to an interview with Wil McCarthy. Having enjoyed his novels "Bloom" and "The Collapsium", I checked it out. "Wil McCarthy will be a familiar name to the readers of Science Fiction Weekly for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that McCarthy's science column, "Lab Notes", can be found on this very Web site. McCarthy is able to make complex subjects such as nanotech comprehensible. ... He has written the comprehensive nonfiction work 'Hacking Matter'." In your research for your nonfiction book, Hacking Matter, did any one item provide more fascination than the others? McCarthy: The idea of "quantum dots" and "artificial atoms" - designer electron bundles formed in tiny electronic traps - captivated me right away. The thing that really amazed me, though, was that the obvious application - programmable matter or "wellstone" - seemed to have been overlooked by everyone involved in the actual research. I tried to squeeze some of these speculations out of the physicists at MIT and Harvard and Sun Microsystems, but finally I gave up and just described, in my own words and images, how such a technology would work. The results have been amusing: a pending U.S. patent and several strong expressions of interest from government agencies and venture capitalists, and conference organizers eager to fly me out to explain the idea. My business partner and I are forming a new company around the technology, which we hope to begin marketing in actual products by the end of the decade. I find it deeply ironic that the invention came out of a science-fiction novel, The Collapsium, and only later found its way into Hacking Matter, a nonfiction book, and later still into the real world. So I visited Wil's own web site, http://wilmccarthy.com and found the Hacking Matter book page, where it says: The Flick of a switch: A wall becomes a window becomes a hologram generator. Any chair becomes a hypercomputer, any rooftop a power or waste treatment plant. 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 companies ranging from Levi Strauss to IBM and 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 are truly magical. Here's a more in depth Lab Notes article, The Heart of the (Programmable) Matter and even more at http://wilmccarthy.com/fact.htm permanent link #     ^ TOP ^  what is this place?

DanceSafe: Current Laboratory Pill Test Results Mercedes, Methamphetamine (50.0%) Pseudo/Ephedrine (50.0%) --> Memepool post: "Fake drugs are for losers, so check this gigantic database of descriptions and pictures of club pills before you drop that Yinyang." via [Memepool] permanent link #     ^ TOP ^  what is this place?

The Wingnut Debate Dictionary The Wingnut Debate Dictionary - spice up your political screeds with some colorful new terms like Colmestrato (n.) - an emasculated, harmless "liberal" stand-in included for purposes of fairness and balance and Condiment - a statement that needs to be taken with a heavy pinch of salt. I am so adding Deus ex rectum and Stepford Democrat to my vocabulary. And how is it that fucksimilie hasn't found it's way here long before now? This is a game that MeFi wags of all political persuasions can play...anyone have any terms to add to the lexicon? (compiled by Ethel the Blog) via [MetaFilter] permanent link #     ^ TOP ^  what is this place?

Chimp filmstar turns to painting Boing Boing post: JWZ just got the coolest birthday present ever: a painting painted by Cheeta, the chimp who played opposite Johnnie Weismuller in the Tarzan movies. The artist is now 71 years old and living in Palm Springs, Florida, enjoying his new career as a painter. His name is Cheeta, and he's the world's oldest living primate. via [Boing Boing Blog] Let's send this other "cheeta" into a new career! permanent link #     ^ TOP ^  what is this place?