Star Trek Replicator, from fiction to reality?

Bodhi Dharma Zen said:
What do you all think about this. I can say wow. I really hope it works and soon.
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not too impressed, it a machine that can build like machines. Also, it can't use raw materials.

The level of material you give to the machine really depends on what it is capable of.

If it can machine metal, you can give it raw metal blocks, otherwise, you need to give it premachined parts.

If it can make coat copper onto fiberglass, you can give it fiberglass sheets and raw copper.

If it can etch copper, you can give it copper clad boards, otherwise, you need to give it preetched boards

If it can pick and place parts, and reflow the solder, you can give it blank boards, otherwise, you need to give it preassembled boards. Also, it isn't going to be able to make electronic components.

on and on and on.

If you really wanted a self replicating machine, you'd really need to make it a self replicating city, with FABs, mines, etc. Kinda like 001 (iirc) in the matrix.
 
At the moment, it looks more like "from fiction to a different fiction."


The ST method of replication appears tricky, as they were supposed to use transporter technology. I have never figured out how they figured out the proper spin on all of the electrons in all of the atoms being created.

This version is more limited, but still appears a way off from anything resembling reasonably possible.

N/A

Just one non-math, non-science guy's take.
 
I can't remember either the title or the author, but there's a famous sci-fi story wherin an evil alien race decides to bring the Earth's economy to ruin by supplying "us" with easy-to-make replicators that can duplicate anything.

The aliens return in a few years, eager to take over the smouldering ruins of an Earth devastated by civil wars and economic collapse; only to find that the clever Earthlings have simply incorporated the devices into an even-more-aquisitive capitalism.
 
Re: Re: Star Trek Replicator, from fiction to reality?

RussDill said:
If you really wanted a self replicating machine, you'd really need to make it a self replicating city, with FABs, mines, etc. Kinda like 001 (iirc) in the matrix.
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Isn't a bacterium a self-replicating machine?
Mind you, it's no universal assembler, and we're no where near understanding enough of the underlying chemisty and physics to design a bacterium from scratch for a specific purpose. But theoretically possible right?
But again, theoretically possible doesn't mean currently feasable either technoligically or economically.

I just think it's a cool idea. :P
 
Re: Re: Re: Star Trek Replicator, from fiction to reality?

Roboramma said:
Isn't a bacterium a self-replicating machine?
Mind you, it's no universal assembler, and we're no where near understanding enough of the underlying chemisty and physics to design a bacterium from scratch for a specific purpose. But theoretically possible right?
But again, theoretically possible doesn't mean currently feasable either technoligically or economically.
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Pretty close, though.

I think there are genetically engineered bacteria designed to clean up oil spills. There's also a company working on building a living cell from the ground up.
 
Re: Re: Re: Star Trek Replicator, from fiction to reality?

Roboramma said:
Isn't a bacterium a self-replicating machine?
Mind you, it's no universal assembler, and we're no where near understanding enough of the underlying chemisty and physics to design a bacterium from scratch for a specific purpose. But theoretically possible right?
But again, theoretically possible doesn't mean currently feasable either technoligically or economically.

I just think it's a cool idea. :P
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All living things are self-replicative (except viruses...which IMHO are not techincally living).

But you've got a point; in the future, biology will simply be another chemistry, which will be incorporated into standard engineering. Machines will borrow from, and include, biochemical and biomechanical concepts. Self-repair, neurological computers, enzyme-based metabolism will be used in industry to a much greater extent.

This is not 'weird future' stuff. Just look at what is already here in terms of biologically influenced technology.

Athon
 
I don't think this is inanyway similar to Star Trek like replicators. I don't remember any episode of Star Trek where a replicator is used to builda replicator, which is the point of this idea. Apperently replicators in Star Trek can only make things up to a certain complexity, and since they can make very complex organic compounds, they must be incredibly complex themselves.

This website is about a very different, but also very interesting idea: building a machine that can make something just as complex as itself, like a copy of itself. The ambitions of the authors are not ridiculously high: as 'food' for that machine they plan to use premachined parts such as standard screws, motors, batteries, etc... So that machine will (if it will ever work) depend on industrially made components, and as such it is not self-replicating. Of course many living organisms also depend on a huge infrastructure of premachined components made by bacteria in their ecosystem.

I think they should be able to make such a machine in the not too distant future. It will make perfect copies of itself, but only do so if it gets very specific components. And it will probably do nothing else. It will be more interesting if it could also make other useful things like that Universal Contructor concept. It would also be interesting if it could use slightly different components. For example if it gets motors that use a different voltage, that the machine can adapt the design and still get it's child to function.

That way you can get it to evolve: give the machines with every generation heavier motors, and you get bigger and stronger machines, give it lighter motors and you get smaller and weaker ones. Perhaps after a while you'll get some of them that can make some of the components of the original machine.
 
I believe such self-replicating machines are called Von Nuemann machines, and they have figured heavily in various sci-fi works such as Greg Bear's Forge of God.
 
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