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I had assumed the link would be about a 3D printer that cranks out lego pieces. This is way, way more awesome.

steveklabnik 16y ago
You can print out lego pieces on a Makerbot pretty easily. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:591 http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:591
mbreese 16y ago
And here, I was assuming it was a 3D printer that made objects with Legos. Either way though, it was great.
JeanPierre 16y ago
Well, why not combine a 3D printer AND lego? Since I've got a long summer, I'm now really tempted to make a RepRap (http://reprap.org/ http://reprap.org/) with lego like this. Imagine how cool it would be to show that to kids: A lego-robot making lego!
- deleted 16y ago
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- hugh3 16y ago
  I've thought about a Lego-building robot made of Lego before, but mostly in the context of an illustration of why atomic assembly by nanobots is probably impossible. I'm thinking specifically of the "sticky fingers" problem, which says that if something binds strongly enough to an atom to "pick it up" then it's going to be very difficult to get it to "drop" it again. I imagine you'd have the same problem with Lego... although at least with Lego you can usually pick a block up by its sides, which you can't do with atoms.
  - eru 16y ago
    > I've thought about a Lego-building robot made of Lego before, but mostly in the context of an illustration of why atomic assembly by nanobots is probably impossible. Bacteria are proof that nano-assembly is possible, if you define assembly broadly enough.
    - hugh3 16y ago
      Sure, it's most definitely possible with a limited palette. Anything you can build out of proteins is easy. Other stuff is either harder or impossible, which is why I believe that nanotechnology will enable all sorts of great things, but a "universal assembler" will not be one of them.
hugh3 16y ago
I was thinking of a 2D printer which builds pixel-mosaics out of Lego blocks. That would probably be a lot easier than the 3D Lego printer.
fuzzythinker 16y ago
Same here. Also, this reminds me of a TV program where it showed some Japanese hackers that hacked printers drivers so the motors synchronizes to tunes like super mario bros (couldn't google it for link). Coupling that with this would be super.

You can print out lego pieces on a Makerbot pretty easily. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:591 http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:591

mbreese 16y ago

And here, I was assuming it was a 3D printer that made objects with Legos. Either way though, it was great.

JeanPierre 16y ago

Well, why not combine a 3D printer AND lego? Since I've got a long summer, I'm now really tempted to make a RepRap (http://reprap.org/ http://reprap.org/) with lego like this. Imagine how cool it would be to show that to kids: A lego-robot making lego!

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
hugh3 16y ago
I've thought about a Lego-building robot made of Lego before, but mostly in the context of an illustration of why atomic assembly by nanobots is probably impossible. I'm thinking specifically of the "sticky fingers" problem, which says that if something binds strongly enough to an atom to "pick it up" then it's going to be very difficult to get it to "drop" it again. I imagine you'd have the same problem with Lego... although at least with Lego you can usually pick a block up by its sides, which you can't do with atoms.
- eru 16y ago
  > I've thought about a Lego-building robot made of Lego before, but mostly in the context of an illustration of why atomic assembly by nanobots is probably impossible. Bacteria are proof that nano-assembly is possible, if you define assembly broadly enough.
  - hugh3 16y ago
    Sure, it's most definitely possible with a limited palette. Anything you can build out of proteins is easy. Other stuff is either harder or impossible, which is why I believe that nanotechnology will enable all sorts of great things, but a "universal assembler" will not be one of them.

hugh3 16y ago

I was thinking of a 2D printer which builds pixel-mosaics out of Lego blocks. That would probably be a lot easier than the 3D Lego printer.

fuzzythinker 16y ago

Same here. Also, this reminds me of a TV program where it showed some Japanese hackers that hacked printers drivers so the motors synchronizes to tunes like super mario bros (couldn't google it for link). Coupling that with this would be super.