Practical uses of nanotechnology to accelerate design innovation

Nanotechnology promises a natural method to accelerate the complex task of innovation for many design problems by exploiting self-assembly and quantum processing at extreme scales of miniaturization. With this objective, a range of hybrid computer devices that use biological cells or chemical thin-films have been built to take advantage of nanoscale information processing. These devices are termed molecular computers and function by manipulating input sets of digital schematics or images stored to Compact Disc optical media. Light transmission through cells or chemical thin-films is a highly nonlinear phenomenon, and causes digital information to replicate with itself. This means that well-defined input sets evolve into entirely new sets through mutation, crossover and natural selection at the atomic level. Each nanocomputer (whether constructed with biological cells or chemical thin-films) is therefore a computationally intensive, yet high-speed, controlled chaotic feedback system, used to deconstruct, then reconstruct form. Methods for generic device construction have been previously reported, so here we focus on the implementation details for approximating several simple design models; before moving on to demonstrate the method against three-dimensional forms such as furniture. Several questions underpinning the formal nature of the design process have been identified in these experiments. For example, what would happen if a designer could access a near-infinite number of different design variations? How does the designer make choices under these conditions? Are pragmatic attributes of concept development such as ergonomic considerations, manufacturing capabilities and material selection marginalized? If so, how does a designer usefully employ this process?