It's kind of a neat idea, but I don't know that I'd call it programmable matter?

McCarthy predicts that programmable matter will someday change our lives as much as any invention ever has.

This idea is more broadly referred to as programmable matter.

Thus, programmable matter has come to mean "any bulk substance which can be programmed to change its physical properties."

For example, in this school of thought, a liquid crystal display is a form of programmable matter.

Scale is one key differentiator between different forms of programmable matter.

Below are some specific examples of programmable matter.

The T-1000 from Terminator 2 fits the definition of programmable matter, although it is not described that way in the film.

In the movie Super 8 the alien spacecraft is composed of programmable matter.

Several researchers have proposed to develop programmable matter by varying the number of trapped electrons in those cavities.