In my fantasies of what I want for future computer interfaces, I keep thinking about smart clay. That’s my go-to term for something that doesn’t exist, but that I would really like to exist.
I would like to be able to pick up a lump of clay, mold into the shape of a creature, and then have that creature come to life. The creature should understand, based on the shape I made, that this is its head, that’s an arm, these are its legs.
When I poke in little indentations for the eyes, it then knows how to look at things. If I give it a nice little paunch of a belly, it should waddle appropriately.
And if I make two such creatures out of clay, they will happily play together with each other — and with me.
Is that asking too much?
It’s not too much to ask at all
…and now I can’t stop thinking how I would go about implementing this behaviour if all you do is model the (virtual) clay in a 3D program and then hit “play”