3d printers are the shitty version of replicators. Build a 3d printer that operates at the atomic level, and you have a replicator. This is not a trivial probl

3d printers are the shitty version of replicators. Build a 3d printer that operates at the atomic level, and you have a replicator. This is not a trivial problem to solve. Figuring out how to fabricate chips at a slightly smaller scale is the work of huge research divisions that build giant machines to do it. But. Once you have this, and can put it into an appliance-sized box that can make another copy of itself out of a trivial investment of resources, things get really weird and capitalism probably breaks a lot of people and/or itself. Until then, though, it'll be business as usual. Patents and copyright will be there to protect the immense investment the corporations made into making stuff a few nanometers smaller, and politicians and pundits sucking on those corporate cashflow teats will be there to help.