matter compiler
molecular assembler
alchemy
nanotechnology

••••••

The matter compiler is a wonderful idea… but, and this is no flaw, it’s entirely unsurprising… I was happy to find it in The Diamond Age because I’d been thinking about re-assembling and assembling since the first inklings of understanding I had about physics — of course you’d get there. Knowing we’re made of little non-things like super-complex Lego bricks that make ever-larger structures by way of their arrangement patterns… that’s most exciting. What else could we want to do but take those bricks — take ourselves — apart and see how we can configure and reconfigure the structure? Forget about standards — everything’s a construction, a system, a plaything, a castle, a clay-thing. This is the dream of the Alchemist.