© 2004 Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle. All Rights Reserved.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Ralph C. Merkle, Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 2004.

5. Issues in Kinematic Machine Replication Engineering

Aside from specific instances of kinematic replicators reviewed in Chapters 3 and 4, and the classical theory of self-replication as outlined briefly in Chapter 2, a number of other issues arise in the context of the practical design and engineering of kinematic self-replicating machines.

Accordingly, this Chapter reviews various taxonomies of kinematic replicators (Section 5.1), including a presentation of the comprehensive new Freitas-Merkle map of the kinematic replicator design space (Section 5.1.9). Chapter 5 then discusses various definitional issues including replication time and replicator mass (Section 5.2), the minimum and maximum size of kinematic replicators (Section 5.3), the Efficient Replicator Scaling Conjecture (Section 5.4), the Fallacy of the Substrate (Section 5.5), closure theory and closure engineering (Section 5.6), massively parallel manufacturing (Section 5.7), simulation software (Section 5.8), and a primer on the mathematics of self-replicating systems (Section 5.9). The Chapter finally concludes with brief treatments of two important policy-relevant issues: replicators and artificial intelligence (Section 5.10) and replicators and public safety (Section 5.11).

Last updated on 1 August 2005