Nanomorph

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A nanomorph, term arguably first coined by SF writer David Pulver in 1986's GURPS Robots, is a fictional robot entirely made of nanomachines. Its brain is distributed throughout its whole body, which also acts as an all-around sensor, hence making it impossible to surprise as long as the target is on line of sight. A nanomorph is arguably the robotic ultimate in versatility, maybe even in power. Further improvements on the concepts could be using parts of its body as a tracking device, splitting the body for doing several tasks, or merging two nanomorphs in a greater one, or else gliding/flying in an ornithopter-like way (by molding itself like a giant, articulated kite).

A common but facultative (without this feature, it would still qualify as a nanomorph) improvement is the ability to cover itself with specific colors and textures in a realistic looking manner (the ultimate being to look like a human, à la doppelgänger). The most famous example of such a nanomorph is the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but one can also mention a similarly-featured creature from the Dungeons and Dragons game, the Living Steel (image) and the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks has a rather advanced type known as the EDust assassin. Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis both feature nanomorphs with the human-form replicators and the Asurans, respectively. A foglet is a similar concept used in the comic book Transmetropolitan. A close cousin is Glacius in the game Killer Instinct, except that it is not a robot but a living being. More scientifically possible examples from fiction are the nanomorphs explained in Michael Crichton novel Prey.