Moldable by Blake Datch

[Robert_Moriyama]

Keeping in mind the Arthur C. Clarke maxim about "any sufficiently advanced technology...", that is. Maybe Transficubes are the more benign (than the T-1000 and T-X Terminators) application of "mimetic polyalloy"!

[Robert_Moriyama]

From the context (the Transficube seems to be an expensive, but freely available device), we can assume that whatever the Transficube is made of, it isn't dangerous in itself. The unimprinted cube was presumably light enough for Dad to carry around and to be supported by a normal table (although the table might be made of stronger materials than we would expect), so we could guesstimate its mass at about 50 pounds at the outside (23 kilograms); and I suspect that the weight of the cube would remain relatively constant even when it expanded to human size (using air to fill microscopic gaps in the material?). There was no indication that the cube absorbed material (other than air) in order to change size and shape.

Now, from the story, it sounds like the cube could be programmed so that the component elements would act together to simulate the behavior of the object (or animal, or even person?) whose shape it was imitating. So one could program the resulting thingy to be dangerous (make the dog a biter...)

[Robert_Moriyama]

The current level of "nanotechnology" consists mainly of teeny tiny particles of materials (consisting of many thousands or millions of molecules) small enough that they begin to have quite different properties and behavior than stuff in particles easily visible without magnification. These particles turn up in (I think) makeup, coatings for metal, medication, etc. There is also some work being done on making very long, very pure molecules in special configurations (look up "carbon nanotubes" and "buckyballs") which again have special applications. (The "cable" for a space elevator might be made up of much longer than currently achievable carbon nanotubes compressed into bundles.)

Theoretically, it will eventually become possible to assemble individual atoms into configurations that act like switches (for computing, etc.*) or even like tiny tools and machines capable of manipulating matter at the level of individual molecules and atoms. Initially, these nanomachines would fulfill a single, predefined purpose (latching onto harmful particles in the blood or isolating impurities in another liquid so they can be precipitated out); they wouldn't be 'programmable' per se, and would be inert when not exposed to the particular molecular/chemical cues for which they were designed.

The "grey goo" scenario assumes that more complicated, self-replicating nanomachines can be created, capable of grabbing atoms from their surroundings and combining them to make copies of themselves... which would grab atoms from their surroundings and make copies of themselves... which would (etc.) Assuming that such machines can be made, and get loose in the world WITHOUT any means to turn them off, eventually the whole planet would end up being converted into an undifferentiated soup consisting only of nanobots.

(*I believe that very crude versions of digital logic "gates" have been successfully created... using scanning electron microscopes(?) to position individual atoms!)