In the video under this picture you can see a (very far, think of 2050) futuristic view on claytronics , being developed by the Carnegie Mellon University: a technology that imitates form at a distance. Like sound and vision are recorded by microphone and camera, are transported through electronic media and are played somewhere else, this technology does the same with form. It does that by having millions of microscopic balls changing shape and color dynamically. In this video we see a car which arises out of a bowl of balls, which then can be manually changed at the spot. More information below. Claytronics will have an enormous impact on the way brands will develop products. If a designer forms a product, it can arise at thousands of consumer tables at the same time, with all its possibilities and impossibilities. It will still take a very long time, but earlier or later this will throw marketing off its feet (again).a href=“http://intel.com” title=“Intel”>Intel‘s vision even takes it a step further than the car example. Intel Research Pittsburgh envisions two heart surgeons doing heart surgery together. One surgeon however is not physically present, but is imitated in form - he does exist and he is active, but is physically in another part of the world (of even in outer space, in 2050 
). Intel calls this dynamic physical rendering. In Carnegie Mellon’s presentation there even is an example of three friends playing soccer together, while two friends are not physically there, but somewhere else in the world. How weird can it get?
I think it can get weirder than this: What do you think of a cat changing in a dog, a white homeless guy in a black basketball player, a Labrador in a bike? A woman in a witch? A car in a wizard? A truck in a dragon? Even an apparent jungle can change in a football stadium? Or small: a fly changing in a spider? Or artificial birds? How much weirder do we want it to get? Will we have clothes that will take themselves off, fold themselves and put themselves in the closet? Or is that not necessary even and do they change into something we can use at that very moment? Or, completely different again: a soccer game being played at various places at the same time? That horrible guy from TheMatrix who arose hundreds of times would then be possible too. Or the film WestWorld, in which we interact with humans and robots in a fun way. Or the reproduction of people who passed away a long time ago. Our beloved ones. Napoleon. Hitler. Maybe even Jesus. Our own grandma and grandpa. And their behavior will be a lot like their human replica. That technology after all is fifty years further then, too. Too weird for words. This however will need a lot of thinking.
A little bit more about the technology: the microscopic balls are described as catoms, claytronic atoms, which move in three dimensions in respect to other catoms. Each catom has its own chip, its own energy, sensors for location and other catoms, communication devices, and the possibility to change its color. They remember the relations with other catoms, and so can make a shape together. That’s why it’s also called programmable material.
Materials we will see a lot of, at least if we think we can make 2050. I myself hope to just be able to make it (I will be 82 then). Even so, it is good to put this in perspective: although we have the feeling we will be able to fool all of our senses (hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, and tasting), we just forget about the sixth (or maybe even the seventh and eights) sense. In the years to come we will start to discover a lot about these types of senses, which work at energy level. And these won’t be able to imitate through material. Although the virtual world looks more and more real, it still is, and will be, a virtual world.