Long-time players of ’80s role-playing game Cyberpunk 2020 and the more recent Eclipse Phase are acutely aware of the potential uses and risks that come from swarms of intelligently-connected nano-scale machines. In science-fiction worlds commonly depicted in these games, as well as an entire genre of movies, books, and video games, nanoswarms are old hat.
But, what if nanotechnology could deliver these incredible small, wirelessly-connected machines? How would they communicate? What practical purpose would they serve in a real-world scenario?
As it turns out, there are scientists and researchers working developing this very type of technology