Nanotech: "Smart Fabrics"

Reidar Gunn writes: "This article is about nano technology... I read it over to make sure I was really reading what I read! Red to Blue cloths, sizes going from bigger to smaller... Wonder if they'll make wireless clothes with a subscription service, Yah never know! Logo changing shirts eh!"

Comments

subscription service

[paranoic]

Just what I'd want, a Microsoft shirt that reads "Hacked by Chinese"

Re:subscription service

[Crazy Diamond]

After all you're just licensing the shirt! You don't own the shirt and must comply with the EULA or else the clothes will stop working! i.e. disintegrating into threads at the most inopportune times. I like this idea!

I can see it now...

[krugdm]

Know someone you want to see killed? Hire someone to hack into his new turtleneck and set the size to "Petite" and strangle him to death.

Re:What about the textile industry?

[Snowfox]

A man is nothing without a job, unless man has a reason for existence, be it tilling the soil or repetitively inserting screws on an assembly line, he is nothing, for work maketh a man.

Nanotechnology changes all this - the technology does the work. With this new technology, it looks as though the textiles industry will be the first to suffer once again. Clothes will manufacture themselves, and the honest worker in the clothing industry will become as the ancient hand weavers, non-existent.

Feh. The degree to which we can coopt a technology for ourselves is the degree to which we remove control from the hands of our masters.

There's not much we can do to get our hands on our masters' looms, but once the replication is done by nanomites, we've gotten our hands on the machine - the control has moved outward as it did when mainframes gave way to PCs where Linux and the likes were born - the control has moved outward as it did when huge bandwidth went from just a few sites to everyone who could afford cable and DSL and peer to peer file sharing became/is becoming the norm - and when we can capture and successfully reprogram the little knitting machines that comprise a sweater, we'll find a new wealth there as well.

Don't fear the nanobots. Fear the legislation that will attempt to stop you from using them yourself.

What about the textile industry?

[Kiss the Blade]

Any man of history, a proper Renaissance man gifted with an intelligence that appraises not just the technical, but the artistic & historical too, will be aware that the first modern political revolutionaries were spawned from the 19th century revolution in the textiles industry in England. We called them the Luddites - they smashed looms with an anti-technological passion first expressed among the Satanic Mills of 19th Century Lancashire.

Do we really want to bring those days back?

A man is nothing without a job, unless man has a reason for existence, be it tilling the soil or repetitively inserting screws on an assembly line, he is nothing, for work maketh a man.

Nanotechnology changes all this - the technology does the work. With this new technology, it looks as though the textiles industry will be the first to suffer once again. Clothes will manufacture themselves, and the honest worker in the clothing industry will become as the ancient hand weavers, non-existent.

This is the stuff revolutions are made off gentlemen. By supporting nanotechnology you are supporting revolution, both technological and, much more dangerously, social.

I for one support nanotechnology for I believe it brings the day of revolt closer, the day when we can throw of thw chains of government, corporation and society comes ever closer with ever little gear wheel an MIT professor makes.

Nanotechnology will change the world, and bring the vision of Trotsky that little bit closer.

Re:What about the textile industry?

[Saeger]

A man is nothing without a job, unless man has a reason for existence, be it tilling the soil or repetitively inserting screws on an assembly line, he is nothing, for work maketh a man.

Wrong.

Most people hate their jobs, and given the freedom to do whatever they want with their time, they'd turn to other more gratifying activities, such as hobbies, family, travel, writing, painting, or... maybe the orgazmatron. :)

A work ethic is traditionally valued because it HAD TO BE in order to survive. But once we are able to assemble food from dirt, etc., it won't matter what you DO with your life because the necessities will be essentially free.

Oh... and a few of those former textile workers' hobbies now might include fashion design... and EVERYONE could then benefit from their [Open Sourced] designs, and only need to repay them with gratitude.

Re:What about the textile industry?

[Snowfox]

My brothers and sisters: the only path to freedom it the one you make for yourself. Learn what other people value, use it industriously and bask in the warm glow of capitalism. Let untrained, unwilling to learn, undisaplined people till the soil and turn the screws.

You couldn't be more right. Every inner-city Chicago Tom, Dick and Jerome who hasn't ever had the opportunity to even -touch- a PC by the time they graduate from high-school has only himself to blame for not capitalizing on the big Internet revolution.

Re:What about the textile industry?

[Kalabajoui]

The future I fear is one where their is unlimited wealth and resources and limited access for society overall to enjoy them. I'm afraid that every task that a human can perform will eventually be automated away. The only people who will enjoy this scenario are the landed and capital holders who made their fortunes while a human still could. As for the unlanded and non capital holding poor, the future will be to either starve or do the most menial and unrewarding of work, no matter what their abilities or inclinations are. What will happen when the working and middle class are completely irrelevant to the production of the very goods and services they need? In America, cheap foreign slave labor is already giving us a small taste of what automation is going to do to us.

What good will nano-technology do for the poor and middle class when the "Intellectual Property" to make and use it is licensed and locked down? People who are fortunate enough to own land could try living in an efficient and self sufficient manner. The only problem with that being, property taxes demand cold hard cash which you need to be able to provide a good or a service that someone is willing to pay for to acquire it in the first place. So watch as you can't afford to license and activate the nanotech
that you need to generate revenue to keep the property that you are "renting" from the government.

As much as I would like to see a Star Trek scenario of infinite wealth and plenty for everyone, I envision a darker future. I think that things will devolve into more of a state of feudalism where society is stratified into classes of haves and have-nots. Not because there isn't enough wealth to go around either. Rather, the people holding the ability to create wealth will never part with the least bit of any of it to give back to the society that enabled them to become wealthy to begin with. Don't get me wrong, I believe that for the time being there are opportunities for enterprizing individuals who are intelligent and willing to work. It's just that I believe that the capitalistic base of laws that we live under today in regards to real and intellectual property are only going to lead to poverty, oppression, and artificial scarcity in the future. Too bad, it doesn't have to be that way. I hope that nanotech does become an enabling resource to the average person like some other posters have suggested. I'd rather live to see that happen than what I think is going to happen.

Re:What about the textile industry?

[BlenderHead-2001]

I think you have had enough time to read up on all of your revolutionary idea's because of not breaking your back all day plowing some little tract of land. You would be much better off focusing your energy on the more salient dangers of nanotechnology, namely the grey goo scenario where an uncontrolled nano-replication accidently turns all of the Earth into copies of itself.
Moreover, I find your idea of revolution to be a little outmoded, Trotsky's Theory of Permanent Revolution was written under a government that did not allow the right to demonstrate. To take the kernal of the idea into today's realities, consider it in idea space. Convince people it's a better way then vote for them. In old style revolutions things tend to get broken, and I for one do not want my things to get broken.
Go eat your cake.

Re:What about the textile industry?

[gad_zuki!]

We called them the Luddites - they smashed looms with an anti-technological passion first expressed among the Satanic Mills of 19th Century Lancashire.

Its a commonly known fact that luddites were more against working conditions in cramped spaces costing about 2 fingers per hour than the technology itself. The term was later picked up and changed into Neo-Luddite which is more or less what you're describing.

I don't think a Trotsky-esque world will emerge after Nike unleashes underwear that makes farts smell like roses.

Re:What about the textile industry?

[pcwhalen]

Maybe you don't get it.

I hate to quote lunatics, but it was Ross Perot that said "We want jobs to make microchips, not potato chips." The idea is that the higher up on the food chain you are, the better the view.

The same is true with knowledge: the more you know about the world, its people and how to control it all, the less shit you are forced to eat. Now, a little excrement is consumed by all, but the people with the knowledge get to say who eats the most. Same with any technology: train our people to use it so they are at the top of the food chain.

Nanotech will be in the hands of those who understand it and can use it. Its benefits will trickle from the haves to the have-nots only if those in the know benefit from it. Capitalism reigns, Trotsky remains dead in Mexico with an axe in the back. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

My brothers and sisters: the only path to freedom it the one you make for yourself. Learn what other people value, use it industriously and bask in the warm glow of capitalism. Let untrained, unwilling to learn, undisaplined people till the soil and turn the screws.

Too bad Douglas Adams is gone...

[Pig Hogger]

Too bad Douglas Adams is gone, he would have incorporated THHGTTG into the towel...

I hope we can control this stuff remotely

[billcopc]

Red to Blue cloths, sizes going from bigger to smaller.

How about an IR-remote that changes baggy t-shirts into semi-sheer micro-bikinis ? :)

Nice Nikes, err... oops, I mean Reeboks...

[gnovos]

I wonder how long it will take before we will all be wearing one AlwaysClean(tm) Wrinkle-B-Gone(tm) T-shirt for your entire life, having it change color, shape, texture, even brand-name as fads come and go... It's going to be great!

same as it ever was

[xerxes7]

i hate to slag, but this isn't really announcing anything new. this is the same kind of gee whiz article that pops up from time to time letting us know that a couple little developments have taken place and then going on and on for paragraphs about how cool smart clothes will be once they get here.

not that we need concepts like "blame" and "fault"

[Ryandav]

The view from the top doesn't spread effectively enough from the center, creating a bell curve not unlike the immense quality-of-life gap between First and Third world nations.

Predicting the Future

[MobyDisk]

Wow - and I just started reading The Diamond Age this week.

Advertising!

[GrouchoMarx]

Just what I needed, banner ads on my underwear. Will there be any way to block porn sites? Maybe disable cookies?

Luddites ...

[ian stevens]

Luddites - they smashed looms with an anti-technological passion

I did a research paper on Luddites a while ago where I delved into first-hand accounts of their actions as written in newspaper articles of the time and found that the Luddites were more against poor working conditions which the looms brought about than the looms themselves. The common misconception is that Luddites were anti-technology. This was not necessarily so. The looms were a symbol of oppression which included dangerous working conditions and low wages.

If I could only find that paper, I'd be able to further argue my point.

ian.

Logo-changing shirts? No thanks.

[Guppy06]

Ever notice how clothes with a corporate logo tend to be more expensive than non-logo-wear clothing? I mean, compare a plain ol' gray Hanes t-shirt to one that has "Tommy" plastered on the chest.

Now, imagine the price difference if, instead of just one logo, the shirt could display one of ten at any given moment. That sounds like justification for the clothing makers to charge ten times the price to me.

Of course, these clothes could be CHEAPER instead of more expensive (free advertising and all), but the average consumer is just so gullible...

Re:The Hype vs The Reality

[Sabalon]

a jacket with built in cell phone and mp3 player. where do I put the batteries? what if I want to wear a different jacket?

"Yeah...I know it's 12 degrees out, but I'm expecting a phonecall, that's why I'm just wearing a windbreaker."

Re:Towelly!

[Fishstick]

Son of a bitch! Where is that @#$*! towel!?

That sounds great...

[Regolith]

...until someone inadvertently uses it on Aunt Martha instead of the cute, petite college girl walking next to her. Just think of the damage to society you could cause with one of those things.

The Hype vs The Reality

[InfoVore]

The Hype: Nanotech clothes are coming!!!

The Reality: Some innovations are being explored in the textile industry. Some of these are very good ideas (sports socks that absorb bacterial odors). Some of these are very bad ideas (a jacket with built in cell phone and mp3 player. where do I put the batteries? what if I want to wear a different jacket?)

The one thing that intrigues me about the article is not that big companies like DuPont are exploring new "smart" textiles, it is that the popular media has absorbed the idea that molecular nanotechnology is coming and is going to be a Big Thing. The idea of smart clothing is no surprise to anyone who read Drexler's ENGINES OF CREATION back in the late 80's, or for that matter anyone who reads a fair amount of SF, or has the least bit of technical knowledge and imagination. I find it simply fascinating and funny that popular culture is "discovering" these ideas many decades after they were first proposed.

What is even funnier is that the jounalists and speculators are making the same innane impractical speculations they have always made. Baby pajamas with a built in cell phone? Get a life. Remember these are the successors of those visionaries in the 50's and 60's who said we all would be driving nuclear cars, flying personal helicopters, and using too-cheap-to-meter electricity by now. Yeah, right.

There were many good ideas mentioned in the article. I hope that Nano-Tex, et. al. are able to bring out some of these products: Bio-monitoring clothing, color/pattern changing cloth, variable permiability cloth, etc.

Just do us all a favor. Leave the cell phones out of it.

IV

Re:Towelly!

[cloudmaster]

I don't see anything about the fabrics "getting high and just wandering off" in the article...

Shirt Licensing??

[camusflage]

Having content delivered to your shirt gives new meaning to shrink-wrap licensing.

Seriously though.. This is a step towards the future we all abhor: One where everything is licensed. Sure, it starts out simple, then the shirt gets an IPv6 address, and starts calling home, and before you know it, you're only allowed to wash a shirt 10 times before you have to choose between it calling home or being called home.

Bagh! Humbug!

[angry old man]

Back in my day we didn't need a shirt that changed colors or went from one size to another.

Our clothes would come in one respectable size and respectable color and it stayed that way. Nowadays all you kids and your fancy schmancy rayon or neon colors think that your clothes need to glow and look fancy. Now you even want your shirts to change sizes as you grow up.

When I was a kid, I wore all of my older sisters shirts once she outgrew them and I liked it. When I outgrew these shirts I kept wearing them until my younger brother grew into them. This would often take about 2 years and the shirt would develop respectable worn marks and tears. My kid brother would eventually wear these clothes after they were thread bare and see-through and he liked it.

Great...

[ryanvm]

Now I'll have to listen to my towels saying:
Oh man, I'm so high I don't even know what's going on.

Hint: It's not funny if you didn't see last week's South Park - and it's probably not funny even if you did.

That's nothing!

[prototype]

I already have clothes that change sizes, fade and come pre-wrinkled. It's called being a bachelor. Why would I want some Borg technology injected into my laundry heap to do this? There's already something crawling inside of it, I just don't know what yet.

liB

BFOD?

[Glytch]

Blue Face Of Death?

GPS in the collar?

[gnovos]

At least now the arrow underneath my "I'm with Stupid" shirt will always be pointing in the right direction...