This was a cool dream. I don't usually have dreams that might one day have some practical application, but this one definitely might, which is sort of neat-o.

It didn't involve any people, though. It was all about technology. I usually have people-oriented dreams (or at list living-thing oriented dreams), so this one was exceptional for that reason as well.

It involved a little cafe.

At least it was usually a cafe.

During the daylight hours, that is, it was a cafe. At night, it was a restaurant with a completely different storefront, and a completely different floor plan. The change was made every day at a certain time. You wouldn't even notice it happening unless you happened to be walking by when it happened.

This, then, was my first nanotechnology dream.

Here's how the cafe/restaurant worked:

Given a particular floor plan, little nanobots could assemble themselves into furniture and decorations. Each one of them was a robot that could emit light, changing its color and brightness according to a program.

The same went for the storefront: By day, it could be a little outdoor cafe with furniture on the sidewalk and no walls. After changing the floor plan program, some nanobots assembled themselves into a wall, and the wall could be made of whatever was desired (well, have the appearance of being made of whatever was desired.

Pretty neat, eh?

One cool side-effect was that all the buildings in a city glowed a little at night. Pretty neat.

I don't know how windows would be handled, though. I have some ideas, but being practical obviously wasn't the point of this dream.

Going further, it would be neat to apply such technology to homes. People would buy these little bots in lots of certain quantities, and then pay for the floor plans that would arrange them. You could have a different living room furniture set each night of the week if you wanted.

I'd love that.