Utility Fog

I first read about foglets in Transmetropolitan, an edgy science fiction comic book series written by written by Warren Ellis. Foglets are tiny (human cell sized) robots with substantial computing power with 12 extending arms theorized by Dr. John Storrs Hall (regarded as one of the most significant thinkers in the field of molecular nanotechnology) . Hall then describes a Utility Fog as a space filled with billions of foglets linked together to share information and energy forming a continuous network. But it doesn't stop there. A Utility fog can reconfigure itself into widely varying shapes and can even make itself invisible. The foglets link their "arms" together to form the shape of pretty much anything. The foglets would be able to exert any force and communicate with each other to create any desired visual and auditory environment.

The original application was as a replacement for seat belts (in the event of a collision, it would appear that the air around the body would appear to have frozen solid). But, the number of other applications are limitless. Hall envisions a scenario of copying one's mind from the natural substrate of the brain into the Utility Fog (called "uploading"). In this way, whole communities could be uploaded into the Fog.A Utility Fog has all the flexibility of a virtual environment, but it actually exists in the physical world.

When ? According to this article @ Speculist, Utility Fog is not the next big thing. It's more like the big thing that comes after four or five other big things.

References:

Utility Fog: The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of
By J. Storrs Hall

What I want to be when I grow up, is a cloud
By J. Storrs Hall

The Age of Spiritual Machines
by Ray Kurzweil

The Transformers are coming

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