It's a silly idea but at the same time not totally unrealistic if you assume that one, it's not something we could necessarily start today, two, it isn't a task

It's a silly idea but at the same time not totally unrealistic if you assume that one, it's not something we could necessarily start today, two, it isn't a task that could be completed in any 'worthwhile' timeframe, and three, that the raw material for such a venture existed and could be harvested in some at-least-minimally efficient way. Once we have some sort of solution to the materials problem, it sure would be fun to throw out a couple of linked, self-replicating devices into space and check up on them in, oh, a thousand years or so. Hell, bury our best AI somewhere in the core and maybe by the time it's discovered we'll have a created the next Big Thing. I wonder how long it will be before machines can 'meditate' (usefully of course, hibernate doesn't count)...