[raybon]

20 years ago, when I was a bright eyed graduate student, I was mesmerized by MEMS (micro-electro mechanical systems), which promised similar revolution. I learnt about 'artificial muscles', and MIT Technology Review even ran a cover issue on how MEMS will revolutionize everything. This article could have been written in the year 2000 except it would have mentioned MEMS then. Now there is no mention of it. I'm older and saner now. Still feels very much a academic pipe dream than real engineering. I dreamed of working with Kris Pister and now he is 20 years older. Another young professor at UPenn and Cornell is trying to get tenure....call me cynical but this too shall pass. Issues of toxicity in human body etc are huge...

[Espressosaurus]

MEMS have been much quieter in their influence as it turns out. Now they're in everything with an IMU or accelerometer, especially including things like your phone; they're in disposable pressure sensors; and they're in microphones[1].

They've revolutionized some parts of how we live our daily lives, though not in the same way innovations like the car, airplane, computer, or cellphone have.

I expect microbots will be similar. After a decade or two of hard work and billions of dollars invested, they will quietly revolutionize some other small parts of our lives. Meanwhile, the rest of the world moves on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microelectromechanical_systems...

[flyinglizard]

MEMS is also used for laser beam steering (depth sensors, projectors), oscillators and even loudspeakers. MEMS is truly a breakthrough where physics meet electronics.

Commercially MEMS is also very interesting because it’s a branch of semiconductor manufacturing which is dominated by different players compared to the regular TSMC/Samsung/Intel trifecta.

[mikeash]

Some devices use MEMS oscillators instead of crystals, which has the bizarre side effect of making them allergic to helium: https://ifixit.org/blog/11986/iphones-are-allergic-to-helium...

[dmix]

Being wrong is one thing, being too early is an entirely different matter. The timescales of these types of innovations are very long. Early failures don't always mean it's a bad idea.

The only foolish part of your story is over-investing (and over-selling to the media/public) too early before you have any tangible results.

[fsloth]

For me enabling cheap accelerometers so it's fairly trivial to give our machines sense of 'up' and movement is a sufficient enabled advancement for any hyped up technology.