The era of holodecks approaches!

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Zachstar

I personally feel that the ST way with a way to project "force" and "energy" within a local environment will be more like it. In 2050 or so.

That stuff you posted seems to be a GREAT idea for industry tho. I hope they get that going quickly as just about every industry could benefit from it....

Think about about it this way. You can create a virtual scene out of utility fog that will fool your brain into believe it is real. On top of this, as you wank, the ground under you can simply move so you physically do not change much actual location though it will feel as though you are. Physical objects that you can touch see and feel as a plant or a tree or a road or a house or even other people could be created out of thin air and act in a manner that will fool you into believing it is real.

Energy however? How would that work exactly? You couldn't build a holodeck out of it. Utility fog is already thought of as the means to build a holodeck. It will be reality.

An example:

Utility Fog: The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of is a theoretical building material developed by John Storrs Hall, a pioneer in the field of molecular nanotechnology. Capable of functioning much like Star Trek�s Holodeck, Utility Fog explores the hypothetical possibility of using tiny, self-replicating robots to create a 'material' that can make any desired shape or object tangible. Dr. Hall describes Utility Fog as "a kind of universal substance, programmable matter, that can simulate everything from air to solid rock." In the exhibition, Utility Fog is presented as a video loop that imagines the infinite ways that this remarkable �material� could be used.


John Storrs Hall is the author of Nano-Future: What�s Next for Nanotechnology, chief scientist of Nanorex Inc., Fellow of the Molecular Engineering Research Institute and Research Fellow of the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. His research interests include the theory of self-reproducing machines, design of macroscopic machines and molecular manufacturing.

More info because this is how a Holodeck will be made. It is based on energy, but that energy powers the tiny robots that can manipulate reality:

Utility Fog -The Future is Foggy!


Imagine living in Star Trek's holodeck, a three-dimensional space that can simulate virtually anything in the physical world, which responds to your every command and changes to meet your desires and needs at any given moment. It can create your home, your car, or an imaginary space in which you play. It can be a stationary place: your apartment or office, filled with furniture, appliances and tools. You can have it looking like an English manor one moment and an IKEA showroom the next. And if you suddenly feel like riding the Tour de France, it can create a bicycle for you to ride and a winding road in the Pyrenees to ride on.

It'll feel like you're really there, with the wind in your face, the sun in the sky and the pavement under your tires. But in reality, it will just be an elaborate treadmill and this despite the solidity of the illusion. In one sense it will be real, but only insofar as it is composed of trillions of tiny robots that assemble and disassemble in myriad ways, configuring and creating a three-dimensional simulation that occupies physical space and feels close enough to the real thing to fool you. At other times, it will be entirely real, embodying physical objects and spaces that you would use as any other everyday objects.


The technology that will make this possible does not yet exist, but in 1993, Institute for Molecular Manufacturing fellow and Nanorex Inc. founder, J. Storrs Hall designed a hypothetical nanotechnology-based system that may one day provide such functionality. Called Utility Fog, it consists of a swarm of twelve-armed nanobots that link together in a lattice to form "robot crystals" that replicate the physical properties of solid matter (texture, tensile strength, reflectivity, etc.).


A network of such foglets can be used to create a city whose entire landscape may be altered from one moment to the next. Foglet-generated cars can travel on foglet roads that create instant overpasses when vehicles intersect. And if you feel like travelling light, foglets can simulate an air current and, despite traveling in a cocoon of swarming nanobots, you'll feel like you're floating on air.


This potential marvel is not without its limitations and Hall lists several things that utility fog can't do. Unlike Star Trek's replicators it cannot create food or anything else that must be broken down chemically. And it can only simulate air to the touch, but not to the eyes. Therefore, living out your Superman fantasy will require the use of holographic glasses or contact lenses that will hide the visual artifacts left by the fog.



Utility Fog can also make the virtual real. Instead of jacking into a virtual reality simulation for a telepresence system (e.g. through a computer brain interface), an individual can be shrouded in such fog, which can record and instantly transmit his/her actions to a remote location where a fog-based avatar can reproduce such actions in the real world.


It's an amazing future and Hall is working toward making it a reality. His company, Nanorex is developing NanoEngineer-1, an open-source CAD (Computer Aided Design) application that uses a familiar interface that enables mechanical engineers to create models of molecular machines at the nanometer scale and to test them for functionality and structural integrity. This multi-platform toolkit places especial emphasis on structural DNA nanotechnology (which uses DNA molecules to make new materials) and is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS. It includes a series of pre-modeled components designed and is designed to help counter any lacunae in theoretical and practical chemical knowledge that mechanical engineers may have.

Starting to see the reality of how it will actually work yet? It is your future Holodeck. The technology is right around the corner. And this one will be real - literally. Though it won't be perfect for some time unless you can get the nanoscale down.

-S