Have nanites caused science-fiction to cross into fantasy? (part 3)

Perhaps the confusion over nanites creating matter is that the microscopic robots can come together and form larger conglomerations of themselves. Modular robots can deliberately re-arrange their parts to adapt to changing circumstances, to perform tasks they otherwise couldn't without re-arranging, and even to recover from damage. Self-reconfiguring robots are more adaptive and durable due to their reconfiguration potential. A robot or group of robots can disassemble and then reassemble to better address tasks. Due to their interchangeable parts, these machines can also replace any broken parts, essentially performing self-repair. Nanites, if designed with similar capabilities, may be able to assemble themselves into a form of architecture, such as a lattice or chain, it isn't a stretch to imagine that these robots could serve as an active patch for damaged human tissue, or potentially close a hole in the side of a spacecraft or sea-faring vessel. Another application, called telepario, claytronics, or programmable matter, involves groups of robots building themselves into three dimensional shapes and adjusting to mimic the movement of the copied source. For instance, modular robotic replicas could mimic the shape of a person or object in real time, and as the original source moved, the replicas would adjust and mirror those movements. Movies like “Terminator 2” clearly demonstrate the potential of a modular robot—something that can sustain damage and self-repair quickly, as well as reform itself into various objects. Though nanites can form shapes, they are not creating matter, nor are they able to self-replicate. Yet.