I think we have all the technical understanding we need to attempt such a thing, but the R&D costs for trying to get this crazy process to work would be astronomical and way beyond the budget of most university labs. I'm speaking mostly in terms of theoretical ability.

We have large scale FPGA devices. Adapting this to be not just reprogrammable in a formal capacity, but constantly self-reprogramming isn't a huge conceptual leap even if it is an enormously complicated thing to prototype and get working.

This is just how the technology behind the transistor made modern computers possible, we've just been iterating and refining on the same basic principle ever since, even though some of those iterations are very painful and expensive to get working. See the current pains around 10nm processes.

When I say we have the technology I don't necessarily mean we have the will or the budget to pursue it. As the costs come down it's inevitable someone will find a solution that's not billions of dollars, but instead mere hundreds of millions.

We're a long way from a proven, working design and process, but at least we can make such a thing, theoretically speaking.