http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/06/030616091423.htm
Anyone who has read widely in science fiction has come across adventures relating to the presence of "smart dust" -- individual sensors which are the size of a grain of sand. Some of the projections were indeed dire -- now, as this article indicates, another SF prediction has come to pass.
What this means is more efficient and ubiquitous information gathering and transmission of information -- with consequences of great moment, since we can vastly enhance the "intelligence" of the material world.
Of course, it can also mean more than this, much more....
An non-technical update on progress in smart dust can be read here:
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20031210/5746410s.htm
Posted by jho at June 26, 2003 08:58 PM