[ExI] von Neuman machines

[Anders]

On 2016-08-27 07:24, Adrian Tymes wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 26, 2016 at 6:28 AM, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com 
> <mailto:hkeithhenson at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     The trouble is, if you talk about a 20 year replication time, a lot of
>     the problems may go away, but so does the motivation.
>
>
> Yes, but this is true of many existing implementations of nanotech too.

Generally, replication time scales as m^(1/4) of the replicator. So the 
time it takes to build an object of mass M out of m-mass replicators is 
proportional to m^(1/4) log(M/m). So the scaling is pretty flat with m, 
with a max time at an intermediate side: big or very small replication 
systems are faster.

However, general systems are much less efficient than specialized ones. 
A general assembler might build copies of itself, but a specific system 
churning out its standardized parts will be way more efficient.

-- 
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University

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