Hacking Matter

Hacking Matter is a 2003 book by Wil McCarthy. It deals with "programmable matter" (like colloidal films, bulk crystals, and quantum dots) that, he predicts, will someday be able mimic the properties of any natural atom, and ultimately also non-natural atoms. McCarthy predicts that programmable matter will someday change our lives as much as any invention ever has. He predicts that we will have the ability to program matter itself - to change it, with the click of a cursor, from hard to soft, from paper to stone, from fluorescent to super-reflective to invisible. In his science fiction, he calls this technologyWellstone.

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Wil McCarthy visits the laboratories of major companies and talks with the researchers who are developing this technology; describes how they are learning to control its electronic, optical, thermal, magnetic, and mechanical properties; and tells us where all this will lead.

See also

• Nanotechnology