In the next industrial revolution, will we manufacture goods, or will they construct themselves? Michael Reilly sits down with architect and computer scientist Skylar Tibbits to talk about 4D printing, programmable matter and the future of things
You run the Self-Assembly lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. What does "self-assembly" mean?
In general, self-assembly is a process by which disordered parts build into an ordered structure through simple interactions with each other. For example, we worked with Arthur Olson at the Scripps Research Institute to build a model of the polio virus. If you put the pieces of the model in a glass container, they just sit there.
But when you impart some energy – shake the glass – they come together. Shake harder, and it comes apart again. You have these different states based on how much energy you put into the system; you don't control where every piece ...