RepRap colony

Would an autonomous RepRap colony be possible?

With a self-replicating 3D printer, it may well be possible to create a self-sustaining colony of machines, all 3D printers, but with an added specialist functionality.

A RepRap colony could have RepRaps which have solar panels fitted for recharging other machines, RepRaps which grow corn starch or sugarcane and make polylactic acid from it to make more RepRaps, RepRaps which assemble RepRaps, anything is possible. The colony can then be used to fulfil a variety of needs.
On the basic level, RepRaps could provide solar power to the world's national grids, corn starch, sugarcane, polylactic acid and of course RepRaps, but as well as the main classes of machines I have mentioned, machines could also be created for agricultural, mining, manufacturing, transport, telecommunications and service purposes. We could potentially automate much of the world economy from the ground up.

Has this idea been proposed before? Am I some sort of noob within the community?

We can't print metal rods and motors at home... yet...

Give it time.


There is also a theory, i don't remember the name. It says once a machine can design and create its own successor, that the evolution of the machine will quickly surpass human intelligence by a huge magnitude.

hendo420 Wrote:
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> We can't print metal rods and motors at home...

Yes we can!
Motors at least: [hackaday.com]

hendo420 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We can't print metal rods and motors at home...
> yet...
>
> Give it time.
>
>
> There is also a theory, i don't remember the name.
> It says once a machine can design and create its
> own successor, that the evolution of the machine
> will quickly surpass human intelligence by a huge
> magnitude.

Getting like skynet every day

This idea has been proposed many times before, but not necessarily using RepRaps, see NASA's Self-Replicating Lunar Factory summer study, James Dyson's self-replicating desert solar powerplant, and the Lackner-Wendt's auxons. More recently, Metzger et. al did propose a self-replicating ecology that incorporated 3d printer.

That being said, no one's ever built one....

References:
[www.islandone.org]
[www.molecularassembler.com]
[www.molecularassembler.com]
[www.mediafire.com]

Probably want to read this essay.

What you're talking about is certainly possible, well basically that is what our ecosystem is except the ecosystem doesnt listen to us so much. It is 'better' in the sense that humans need to work less, but it is much worse in terms of any sort of empowerment of people within it.

Afaics the aim of the reprap project is basically to have repraps+humans+vitamins to be a complete system. Of course as time progresses we can cut out more vitamins so the reliance on external factories can be reduced. Also the idea of a reprap may be too limited, that of a replab sounds way more realistic. (I think the chips are furthest away from not being vitamins)