Center for Bits and Atoms
Just some notes for now …
Contents
Ready-fire-aim philosopy
Discoveries and scientific progress by
- working on practical problems (where ideas come from (?))
- failing but discovering something different
- which can be applied elsewhere eventually
Related is (highly speculative): The source of new axiomatic wisdom
Focus on growth plan (cellular automata)
Yes, I agree that the von Neumann bottleneck from
separating storage and compute (arithmetic logic unit ALU) is very bad.
But personally I think maximally distributed compute (cellular automata) is only useful in special application cases. E.g. far term utility fog.
I don't like the imperative nature of "what to do" step by step in a "growth plan".
I prefer the denotative nature in a direct description.
See: Decompression chain & Constructive solid geometry
Well, a "growth plan" could be an automated step within a decompression chain.
Actually extrusion in a nanofactory chip is kind of a growth plan.
Just that the assembling nano and micro-machinery does not push itself along but rather stays put and pushes the product.
There is a bio-analogy to the (topologically 2D) "meristem" "germinal epithelia" "germinal zones" "germinal cells".
See: Complex surface nonplanar nanofactory chip growthfronts
Also see: Misleading biological analogies that should be avoided
Reminder: Full volume growth would lead to
- excessive productivity due to higher throughput of smaller machinery.
- complications in feed-stock supply needing to cross product volume
Related
- The three axes of the Center for Bits and Atoms
- Simultaneous prototyping across scales
- Robot substructure gradients
- Brachiating gridcrawlers
- Mobile robotic device & Cellular shape shifting tangible systems
- Digital control over reversibly composable units of matter
External links
Websites:
- Landing page of Center for Bits and Atoms, CBA about page
- MIT: Center for Bits and Atoms
- Wikipedia: Center for Bits and Atoms
Videos:
- 2023-05-25 (~2hours): Neil Gershenfeld: Self-Replicating Robots and the Future of Fabrication | Lex Fridman Podcast #380
Papers & theses:
- Self-replicating hierarchical modular robotic swarms
- Assembling Integrated Electronics by Zach Fredin
- Discrete Robotic Construction by William Kai Langford
Related website with a lot of multimedia content:
