Trope-a-Day: Every Device Is A Swiss Army Knife / Magic Tool

Alistair Young

May 11, 2013 — 1 min read

NO, IT IS NOT AN OMNI-TOOL. WRONG UNIVERSE, DAMMIT.

Every Device Is A Swiss Army Knife/Magic Tool: The ubiquitous nanolathe is pretty much the poster child for these two: basically, it’s a bunch of processors, a future-iPad-equivalent, a complete universal network interface, a pocket-sized nanofac, and a bunch of miniaturized nanomanipulators, vector effectors, and a few other tools built into one handy gauntlet-style package that still permits full hand use and is wearable with most clothing. It can make a wide variety of useful objects (described by software recipes) on the fly, interface with, analyze, debug, modify, and repair just about anything recognizable (including lifeforms), operate as a remote control for even the most complex devices, scan for any number of things, perform a wide variety of computational tasks, let you communicate in a variety of ways, operate as part of your personal-area network, and chill drinks.

Also, it runs apps. And there is almost certainly an app for that.

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