If you haven’t yet grasped the revolutionary nature of the self-replicating, distributed, open-source machines, then you haven’t been paying very close attention to the debate, and you should go back and do some homework.
Agroblogger outlines 3 conditions for advancting open source self-replicating machines, which are not so far away from realisation, as evidenced by this quote about the RepRap project:
“RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. It is [a] practical self-copying 3D printer… – a self-replicating machine. This 3D printer builds the parts up in layers of plastic. This technology already exists, but the cheapest commercial machine would cost you about €30,000. And it isn’t even designed so that it can make itself. So what the RepRap team are doing is to develop and to give away the designs for a much cheaper machine with the novel capability of being able to self-copy (material costs are about €500). That way it’s accessible to small communities in the developing world as well as individuals in the developed world. Following the principles of the Free Software Movement we are distributing the RepRap machine at no cost to everyone under the GNU General Public Licence. So, if you have a RepRap machine, you can use it to make another and give that one to a friend.”
This doesn’t quite make sense.
We are talking here about a machine that can replicate certain not-too-complicated parts of itself, like the raw physical frame of the machine and some of the mechanical moving parts. There are parts that can’t be replicated as yet, and that’s acknowledged in the following:
“this technology already exists, but the cheapest commercial machine would cost you about €30,000. And it isn’t even designed so that it can make itself.”
Perhaps we shouldn’t call it a “self replicating” machine just yet, but find a name that describes what the machine can do, for instance a “parts replicator” or some such designation.
Sepp makes a good point. But, of course, a writer will always use terminology to attract attention and create buzz. An important point to keep in mind though…let’s not get too caught up in semantics. Part of my 3 points is about moving things forward as quickly as possible, and we’re trying to develop a road map and a movement for doing so.