Adaptnetic Structures
(Adaptive Magnetic Structures)
'Adaptnetic Structures' form a prototype that seeks to imagine a future where nanotechnology and materials research has given rise to sophisticated programmable matter, capable of changing its physical properties based on some kind of internal programming.
Here a viscous non-Newtonian fluid has been mixed with nano-scale particles of magnetic iron oxide (Non-Newtonian fluids have distinguished properties, in this case becoming solid with the application of sudden pressure).
With powerful neodymium magnets placed upon a raised platform, the magnetised non-Newtonian fluid is drawn up from underneath appearing to form additional support columns, which (due to their non-Newtonian properties) provide resistance to sudden impacts. In this sense the fluid becomes a dynamic entity capable of re-arranging and concentrating itself where potentially needed.
By certain schools of thought, this represents a form of simple programmable matter (where the programmable element can be seen as external to the material itself, in terms of the placement and arrangement of extrinsic magnetic fields).
'Adaptnetic Structures', however, are only represented here as a prototype, and an indication of a future where sophisticated programmable matter may indeed form the basis of an architecture that constantly adapts to our ever changing needs.