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UBICOMP 2002
KEYNOTE:
PROGRAMMABLE
MATTER
by Wil McCarthy
Electronic devices are rapidly shrinking to the nanometer scale, where
quantum mechanics dominates and particles become waves. Here, the
distinction between chemistry, mechanics and electronics begins to
blur.
Case in point: the quantum dot, a device capable of trapping electrons
in
a space so small that they form "artificial atoms" whose size and shape
and charge can be controlled in real time. Historically, the
properties
of matter are determined at the time of manufacture, through careful
mixing
and processing. But now we find ourselves at the dawn of a new age,
where
substances exist whose optical, electrical, magnetic and even
mechanical
properties can be adjusted at the flip of a bit. In a
fifty-minute
lecture, Engineer/Journalist/Novelist Wil McCarthy explores the social
and
technological implications of this "programmable matter."
Wil McCarthy is the author of numerous science
fiction novels, including Bloom and The Collapsium, and
a contributor to many science periodicals. He has previously written about
programmable
matter in Nature and in Wired Magazine, in an article
titled Ultimate
Alchemy.
More information about Wil McCarthy and his work can be found at his homepage.
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