ems@buttermilk.princeton.edu (Ed Strong) (12/08/90)
(Sorry couldn't help myself :-) Earlier you seemed to rule out the possibility of smart threads for clothing. I guess it depends on what is meant by smart. I can see us rather quickly achieving the ability to construct a suit consisting of fibers that, in response to a simple set of commands, either rotate to present a surface of a different color/texture, or expand and contract for style changes. (Better build a safety switch into the contraction though!) Probably, good microtechnology would be enough to build this, nanotechnology isn't necessary, except possibly to lower the manufacturing costs. So as you hang one of these multisuits in the closet, and you attach a power and control signal cable from your "design change box" to a socket concealed somewhere in the suit. The design change box, a simple computer, runs a program that ultimately becomes addresses and command codes, ie "..fiber 1138 rotate 90...". As usual, hackers will write their own unique fashion programs, while the nontechnically inclined will buy canned ones. Ed Strong