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That also makes an assumption about the actual ability to make a machine capable of self replication. That in and of itself is a really hard problem as it has t
by rtkwe 8y ago
That also makes an assumption about the actual ability to make a machine capable of self replication. That in and of itself is a really hard problem as it has to replicate the entire high industrial base needed to create itself which is a LOT of stuff. Just our current technology requires hundreds of processes and chemicals to create critical things like the circuit boards and the components (capacitors, ICs, etc) on it. Then it needs the intelligence and sensors to identify all the constituent sources and address production problems (eg: impurities in source stock) and breakdowns of it's own internal equipment.
- adrianN 8y agoEarth is full of machines that are capable of self-reproduction (e.g. bacteria), and some of them are clever enough to build rockets, so I don't think it's such a big stretch to assume that von Neumann probes are possible.
- rtkwe 8y agoThat doesn't get us any closer, unless we stretch the idea of a Von Neumann probe to it's limits and include life seeding. Also we're a long ways away from anything near the scale required even surviving a trip to space much less actually living there.