Programmable Matter

Programmable Matter, also known as Universal Programmable Blocks, is a key non-renewable compoment that features heavily in Yoni Arks such as the Embassy Ark. Poorly understood and impossible to find outside of precursor ruins in the Pyxis Globula, its main use was to quickly and easily reassemble itself into modules and technology direly needed by early colonists of the Elpis System to maintain a rudimentary spacefaring technological base and develop their own, more sustainable industry and agriculture.
Before activation, programmable matter closely resembles silvery, polymerous beans which can modify their own shapes and interlock with other matter to create whatever its user wants to assemble, within limits (food or fusion plants will not be made out of programmable matter for instance, though it has not stopped people from trying).
Early colonies were deployed using a mix of 3D-printed polymers and programmable matter. It is widely agreed that without programmable matter, establishing four colony sites on four different worlds would have been an impossible task. In the 151st cycle, much of the programmable matter available from the Ark has been used up, though recycling plants break through obsolete colony modules to attempt and reuse as much of it as possible.
Because of its usefulness, programmable matter is worth a lot of credits in the Elpis system. A rising use of programmable matter is to trade with settlements that do not use credits as currency, such as the remote river colonies of the Willowsloughs on Nufano or the pirates of the Wayward Belt.

Type

Biomaterial