Reading through this book a bit I found a mention of penrose block replicators, and through that found this video from the early 60s. Not really a replicator in an real sense, but still a neat demonstration: <a href="https://youtu.be/hQ6T_TY3JA4" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/hQ6T_TY3JA4</a>
Has anyone tried evolving small shaped block to self assemble when you shake them together? I'm thinking of SLA 3D printing the shapes in various materials to create a functional component by simply shaking everything together.<p>Has this been thought about?
I've been thinking about self-replication for several years. You basically need a robot arm, a small foundery, the spining part of a lathe, a rolling mill to make metal sheet and copper cable. Some way to coat the copper cable (Don't remember) You can use the foundery to produce silicon carbide and graphite. You need a 2d motion system to move the robot arm (maybe 2). You need a system to expend the volume of the machine so that a machine can give birth to another machine. You can bootstrap from that. Initialy photolithography will not be include since you can buy something similar to a rasberry pi for like 2 $. Eventually the more you bootstrap you can create self-replicating factory like machines that can output entire cars from input code.<p>To fetch the raw materials you should use a form of symbiosis. I assume the raw materials are iron, silicon, carbon, copper, (Rasberry pi lol)<p>Just contact me If you got time/money to do that I will give you 3d sketches.<p>Also there is another process you might want to implement if you want to make solar panels. Personally I would just plug it on the grid (for earth based usage)<p>After that its mostly a job of good programming you want the part you created without new processes (ex: photolithography) to still work after the bootstrap process.
This is something that explores current things (3d printers, CNC plywood cutters, etc) that could gradually play larger and larger roles in the fabrication of identical -- or better yet, identical with improvements -- copies of themselves. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4tYIX_QJ2Q" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4tYIX_QJ2Q</a><p>This will most certainly happen gradually, and will probably involve a whole cluster of machines. For instance, a robot arm, a 3d printer, and a bunch of jigs and other devices, which together can make parts of themselves or play a role in assembly.
Here's an honest question that I've pondered occasionally, without really spending the time to research an answer. Not sure if this is biology, chemistry, etc, but would appreciate any insights HN readers may have:<p>How did replication develop in nature? Granted some cells popped into existence as some point, do we have any insights into when/how cell replication became a thing?