4D Printing, Volume 1

4Toward a Possibly Programmable Self-organization?

The fact remains that the construction of a tissue or the differentiation of an organ, macroscopic phenomena, must be considered as the integrated result of multiple microscopic interactions caused by proteins and based on their stereospecific recognition properties. (Monod 2014)

Engineers hate complexity. I hate emergent properties. I don’t want the plane I’m going to fly on tomorrow to have any emergent property in flight. (Drew 2010)

4.1. Introduction

Everyday objects (i.e. mechanical, electrical, computer-based and civil) have long been (and this is still true, even if it is no longer possible to take apart your old alarm clock) composed of heterogeneous elements assembled in a very precise and complicated way. The designers developed them to function as deterministically and predictably as possible according to a precise set of specifications. Traditional technological systems can be analyzed as simple objects subject to the linear causalities of traditional science. But, for some time now, these objects have been made non-dismantlable and it is becoming increasingly difficult to explore their mode of construction (see the now obsolete syndrome of the old alarm clock, of which there was always a gear left after reassembly) and, since 1984, they can be made by additive manufacturing (as opposed to the classical subtractive manufacturing by elimination of material of the elements of the objects).

In this case, according ...