[ExI] Fwd: Self-replicating non-nano/bio tools

Bryan Bishop kanzure at gmail.com
Tue Dec 28 22:23:35 UTC 2010


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 4:21 PM
Subject: [ExI] Self-replicating non-nano/bio tools
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>


On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 12:35 PM, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:
> Just to toss this out for discussion (and, if anyone responds on
> this, please change the subject line): what is the simplest set of
> tools - "simplest" as in "easiest for humans with presently
> available tools and technology" - that can be used to manufacture
> itself, excluding the null set and uncontrolled biological entities?
> (Null set excluded for obvious reasons.  The biological exclusion
> applies to, e.g., other humans - who can be manufactured by two
> unskilled laborers, but are by no means designed or controllable
> in the way a hammer is designed and controllable.)

Heck, I might as well share some thoughts...

I'm told that a plasma welder can create a plasma welder, but there's
only so much you can make with just a plasma welder.

I wonder if there is a set of materials, such that material A is malleable
at
high temperatures but insensitive to, say, magnetic fields, while material
B is not malleable at high temperatures but becomes malleable when
exposed to a high magnetic field.

Tool tips made of these, could of course also be used to create non-tool
tip components (say, malleable at low temperatures) - including the
housing and manipulators needed to get the tool tips into position to do
their things, while themselves staying away from the high temperature or
magnetic field.

Would someone with more experience than me at bending metal care to
comment?

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-- 
- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507
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