Vloky

Vloky is a term used in speculative fiction to describe a distributed, autonomous swarm of nanomachines capable of rapid self-assembly and environmental manipulation. In most portrayals, vloky consists of many thousands to trillions of individual units that operate without a central command, instead coordinating through local interactions and a shared, emergent intelligence. The network can reconfigure matter at the nano- or micro-scale, repair damaged structures, cloak itself, and adapt its organization to new tasks. Energy and resources typically come from ambient sources or direct interfaces with hosts or ecosystems; containment is a common plot device because vloky can propagate and mutate its form.

Origin and usage: The concept is a product of contemporary science fiction and has appeared in novels, films, and role-playing games as a flexible plot device. The term is not tied to a single canonical source and its specifics vary by author. Some depictions emphasize ethical questions around autonomy and control, while others present vloky as a tool for medicine or terraforming, and in others as a threat to security and privacy.

Cultural representations: In narrative settings, vloky often intersects with debates about surveillance, bioethics, and the limits of centralized power. In games, they may function as collectible resources, environmental hazards, or antagonistic forces that require strategic containment or dismantling. Because of its malleability, vloky serves to explore themes of emergence, cooperation, and the boundary between living systems and machinery.