Published by The Institute for the Future.
An Aura of Familiarity
Visions from the Coming Age of Networked Matter

In 2013, our Technology Horizons Program commissioned six leading science fiction writers—Cory Doctorow (@doctorow), Rudy Rucker (@rudytheelder), Warren Ellis (@warrenellis), Madeline Ashby (@MadelineAshby), Ramez Naam (@ramez), and Bruce Sterling (@bruces)—and artist Daniel Martin Diaz to create short stories tied to our research on the coming Age of Networked Matter (#networkedmatter). We asked our collaborators to envision a world where humans have unprecedented control of matter at all scales, and to share with us a glimpse of daily life in that world. It was a process meant to make the future tangible.
