[allendale]

Can just imagine the software necessary to modify wing configuration throughout a flight. What possibly can go wrong?

[nascarnation]

Could be almost as challenging as what your car engine does every day, right?

[Texas Fossil]

What possibly can go wrong?

Absolutely the right question. Computers are not “saving the world” they are destroying our ability to see reality.

[Ezekiel]

Can just imagine the software necessary to modify wing configuration throughout a flight. What possibly can go wrong?

In the natural world, any birdbrain can do it.

So there's hope. :)

[Boogieman]

Yes, not to mention all the little tiny extra moving parts that would all be additional potential points of failure in the system.

Might be a cool idea, but sometimes you want to keep it simple, even if it means you are 1% less efficient than you could be.

[pierrem15]

Actually, it's not that complex. The calculations would involve inputs for airspeed and the position of vertices as points. Not much different in many respects than graphical transforms for color shifting, etc.

In addition, the wings are predesigned so that the physical arrangement of the parts deform under load in a manner appropriate to provide efficient lift.

Really clever.

Note the East Asian graduate student or professor in the photo: if she's Chinese, they've already stolen everything.