Re: reprap


William R. Cousert wrote:

Couldn't today's version print out a slightly better version, which in turn
would print out an even better version, repeating the process until we have
something that can print IC's?

The proof-of-concept of self-replication that we have works along
radically different lines.

The current plan seems to be not to copy itself, but to copy its
parts - in a way that allows them to be relatively easily assembled
by a human.

It would be surprising if a machine could print out better versions
of itself. Where would the information that allowed the improvements
come from? It happens in biology - but *very* slowly. You can't
just say "like this but smaller" - things change as you get smaller.
It seems as though you would need some extra R & D as well.
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