One day a 3D printer will be both able to and programmed to print out several 3D printers each being identical to itself and each one of those 3D printers will print out several more identical 3D printers and so on and on forever. We could then have both the benefit of use and the nightmare of an unlimited number of 3D printers from just one original one multiplying out of control and taking over the world. Perhaps some would mutate and, while they compete with each other for dwindling room an resources, natural selection would select the most adapted variants and they could evolve into a variety of new species; some tiny but social like ants and bees while others will evolve into giant dinosaur printers only to become extinct when a big meteorite hits. But then some evolve to walk upright with big brains and yet, despite the big brains, some become so religious that they like flying aircraft into tall buildings ....OK, I am getting more and more fantastical as I went along there.
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31 May 14
Originally posted by humyA world where religious printers would be right; there was an original manufacturer.
One day a 3D printer will be both able to and programmed to print out several 3D printers each being identical to itself and each one of those 3D printers will print out several more identical 3D printers and so on and on forever. We could then have both the benefit of use and the nightmare of an unlimited number of 3D printers from just one original one multip ...[text shortened]... rcraft into tall buildings ....OK, I am getting more and more fantastical as I went along there.
31 May 14
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Originally posted by C HessYes, but they would believe the original manufacture to be a supernatural god that also created the whole universe and they would still deny evolution!
A world where religious printers would be right; there was an original manufacturer.
31 May 14
2 edits
Originally posted by humyThat concept was first put out by Von Neuman. They were called Von Neuman machines.
One day a 3D printer will be both able to and programmed to print out several 3D printers each being identical to itself and each one of those 3D printers will print out several more identical 3D printers and so on and on forever. We could then have both the benefit of use and the nightmare of an unlimited number of 3D printers from just one original one multip ...[text shortened]... rcraft into tall buildings ....OK, I am getting more and more fantastical as I went along there.
The idea was to launch them into interstellar space with the ability to create itself but many other things, including machines that could be incubators for DNA combinations that would end up putting humans far out into interstellar space, filling the whole galaxy in a few thousand years, where the incubators would also have robots as teachers to bring the new batch of babies up and teach them Earth knowledge so those first kids would only have peers as companions but the next generation would be born normally on a planet that was terraformed thousands of years earlier and so becomes a new home. All at the cost of sending out one Von Neuman machine into interstellar space and it wouldn't matter if it was going 1/1000 ths of the speed of light or at the speed of light, eventually it would reach a star it was aimed at, set up shop on some asteroid, mine it for materials to build more Von Neumans, build new rockets, send that batch off into yet another direction in interstellar space and so forth. All with the information of all life forms on Earth ready to be put together to populate a newly transformed planet.
The main question, similar to Fermi's paradox, why hasn't it already happened? Why don't we see such machines everywhere in our solar system?
BTW, here is another use for 3D printers:
http://phys.org/news/2014-05-scientists-3d-artificial-blood-vessels.html
01 Jun 14
Originally posted by humyThe biggest constraint as it currently stands is that 3D printers need materials to print with. So until they develop the ability to seek out raw material on their own, uncontrolled reproduction just cannot happen. And lets not forget the power supply, but I guess solar powered ones would resolve that.
One day a 3D printer will be both able to and programmed to print out several 3D printers .....
I could currently afford a 3D printer, but have not bought one because the cost of the supplies is still too high. Incidentally the same argument explains why I haven't bought an inkjet printer.
01 Jun 14
Originally posted by twhiteheadJust the other day I read that the cost of ink for printers works out to $8,000 US per gallon.
I could currently afford a 3D printer, but have not bought one because the cost of the supplies is still too high. Incidentally the same argument explains why I haven't bought an inkjet printer.
01 Jun 14
Originally posted by Paul Dirac IIIf you buy it from the printer manufacturers, then you pay 5 to 10 times more than if you buy it from a 'compatible' source. Of course the printer manufactures fight back by making it harder and harder to refill cartridges.
Just the other day I read that the cost of ink for printers works out to $8,000 US per gallon.
Modern inkjet printing is one big rip-off.
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01 Jun 14
Originally posted by twhiteheadIndeed. One that [failing actual regulations requiring printer manufacturers to
If you buy it from the printer manufacturers, then you pay 5 to 10 times more than if you buy it from a 'compatible' source. Of course the printer manufactures fight back by making it harder and harder to refill cartridges.
Modern inkjet printing is one big rip-off.
make easily refillable ink cartridges] may be solved by 3d printing.
If 3d printing becomes mainstream so that people could print their own 2d printers...
or at least the ink cartridges for them... then people will naturally design and print
ink cartridges that maximise ink capacity and are easy to refill.