"programmable matter" has become a buzzword by now (2015).
It seems to refer
* more to active than passive stuff
* to makro- & micro-scale stuff
* and usually not to atomically precise stuff
With nanofactories and especially with fast recomposers for pre-mechanosynthesized microcomponents
things will become more like: "materializable programs"
(that includes passive nanoscale atomically precise materials)
I think one can't overstate the importance that software will have in a world where programs literally are tangible reality.
If we build our software palace on rotting wooden (and well hidden) code stakes we might be in for a massive unexpected crash.
Out of this (and other) reasons I did some digging into available knowledge about the IMO most advanced practical programming techniques that are currently known. Functional programming.
As it turns out there are quite a few connections between functional programming and atomically precise manufacturing (reversible logic is just one of them). In an attempt to gain a clearer picture of the relationships I created a buzzword graph
(bottom of post).
I'd recommend checking out the currently reviving language Haskell
and/or the new baby language elm (the first first order functional reactive language there is)
My first contact with functional programming was via a course which required the reading of the article
"why functional programming matters" - for me it was quite an interesting and eye opening read.
Here it is (CC BY - Lukas M. Süss):
(The source file editable with the free java program "yEd")
Please share your thoughts.
It seems to refer
* more to active than passive stuff
* to makro- & micro-scale stuff
* and usually not to atomically precise stuff
With nanofactories and especially with fast recomposers for pre-mechanosynthesized microcomponents
things will become more like: "materializable programs"
(that includes passive nanoscale atomically precise materials)
I think one can't overstate the importance that software will have in a world where programs literally are tangible reality.
If we build our software palace on rotting wooden (and well hidden) code stakes we might be in for a massive unexpected crash.
Out of this (and other) reasons I did some digging into available knowledge about the IMO most advanced practical programming techniques that are currently known. Functional programming.
As it turns out there are quite a few connections between functional programming and atomically precise manufacturing (reversible logic is just one of them). In an attempt to gain a clearer picture of the relationships I created a buzzword graph
(bottom of post).
I'd recommend checking out the currently reviving language Haskell
and/or the new baby language elm (the first first order functional reactive language there is)
My first contact with functional programming was via a course which required the reading of the article
"why functional programming matters" - for me it was quite an interesting and eye opening read.
Here it is (CC BY - Lukas M. Süss):
(The source file editable with the free java program "yEd")
Please share your thoughts.