# Utility Fog - A Universal Physical Substance * Utility fog would be 100-micron robotic cells that could link together to become different forms of matter * Limits on usability * Physical personal spac * Probably shouldn’t be carbon because surface area would make it self-ignite * Should probably be aluminum oxide * Dodecahedral grippers * Hydrogen as energy buffer * Need regenerartive motors ### Published ## Questions * [[What are the practical limitations to utility fog now?]] ## Thoughts Utility fog (and make tiny robots) feels like the ornithopter of nanotechnology. Taking a thing that you see and then just changing one thing — “like bird flight but bigger! Like robots but smaller!” ## Related [Originally via](https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/1286529381301592064) [[Michael Nielsen characterizes institution building as making previously illegible things legible]] * [[A Fire Upon the Deep]] * [[A Deepness in the Sky]] * [[drexlerRadicalAbundanceHow2013]] ## Authors [[J Storrs Hall]] ## Link https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19940022864.pdf