Mutating Matter: Revolutionary New Technology Creates “Soft” Robots That Flow Like Mercury

Like something out of Terminator 2, researchers are developing techniques for warfare of the future to create materials that self-assemble or alter their shape, perform a function and then disassemble themselves. These capabilities offer the possibility for morphing aircraft and ground vehicles, uniforms that can alter themselves in any climate, and “soft” robots that flow like mercury through small openings to enter caves and bunker complexes.

Several university teams, including Harvard, Cornell, and MIT, are working on different approaches to create "programmable matter"—made of individual pieces that can self-assemble into tools or spare parts. One of the approaches being examined uses sheets of self-folding material that can form three-dimensional shapes on command.

www.dailygalaxy.com...

DARPA Programmable Matter program: www.darpa.mil/dso/thrusts/physci/newphys/program_matter/index.htm
DARPA Chemical Robots program: www.darpa.mil/dso/thrusts/materials/multfunmat/chembots/index.htm
DARPA Chemical Communications program: www.darpa.mil/dso/thrusts/physci/newphys/chemcom/index.htm

Science-fiction is becoming more, and more reality. Imagine this, a "self-altering T-1000" type robot like in the movie Terminator, that is almost exactly what scientists are discovering they can do, but like always, this type of technology has the potential for misuse, and what if one or several of these "self-altering T-1000" malfunctions? The programing code for this type of computer would have to give the computer AI so that it can alter itself in the best way to go through a hole, and then react to whatever situation it encounters inside.

Will such a computer develop enough intelligence to think it might be better not to be commanded by it's human creators? Where is John Connor when you need him?

[edit on 11-6-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

I think this was already posted very early this morning or very late last night.
Anyhoo until the mod squad shows up I wonder if it's related to Ferrofluid?

Ferrofluid

A ferrofluid (from the Latin ferrum, meaning iron) is a liquid which becomes strongly polarised in the presence of a magnetic field.

Ferrofluids are colloidal mixtures composed of nanoscale ferromagnetic, or ferrimagnetic, particles suspended in a carrier fluid, usually an organic solvent or water. The ferromagnetic nano-particles are coated with a surfactant to prevent their agglomeration (due to van der Waals and magnetic forces). Although the name may suggest otherwise, ferrofluids do not display ferromagnetism, since they do not retain magnetization in the absence of an externally applied field. In fact, ferrofluids display (bulk-scale) paramagnetism, and are often described as "superparamagnetic" due to their large magnetic susceptibility. Permanently magnetized fluids are difficult to create at present.[1]

The difference between ferrofluids and magnetorheological fluids (MR fluids) is the size of the particles. The particles in a ferrofluid primarily consist of nanoparticles which are suspended by Brownian motion and generally will not settle under normal conditions. MR fluid particles primarily consist of micrometre-scale particles which are too heavy for Brownian motion to keep them suspended, and thus will settle over time due to the inherent density difference between the particle and its carrier fluid. These two fluids have very different applications as a result.

Also I went into some detail of this possible connection in one of my earlier threads
Definitive Back Engineered Alien Technology Research thread

Liquid metal anybody?


[edit on 11-6-2009 by SLAYER69]

Actually two days ago..

(6/9/09)Pentagon Developing Shape-Shifting 'Transformers' for Battlefield (thread by spikedmilk)

Real-life "Transformers" could soon be used by American soldiers on the battlefield.

The Pentagon's research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is well into the second phase of a project to develop "programmable matter" that could reshape itself to fit any situation, reports SIGNAL magazine.

And almost a year ago by yours truly-

(7/5/08) Tufts to develop morphing 'chemical robots' (thread by aecreate)

Scientists at Tufts University have received a $3.3 million contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop chemical robots that will be so soft and squishy that they will be able to squeeze into spaces as tiny as 1 centimeter, then morph back into something 10 times larger, and ultimately biodegrade.

Frankly, this technology scares the crap out of me.

Isn't it strange how all these scifi movies are becoming reality? Do they already have all this tech than just show and tell us years later or can we realy do anything our minds can thin of over time?this is incredible. I just hope when I die I can know everything that truly went on on this earth.