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]
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