Homebrew PCBs

On Tue, 16 May 2006 10:01:07 +0200, Tobias Gogolin <usertogo@...>  
wrote:

> *A universal constructor* is a machine that can replicate itself and - in
> addition - make other industrial products.  Such a machine would have a
> number of interesting characteristics, such as being subject to Darwinian
> evolution, increasing in number exponentially, and being extremely  
> low-cost.
> http://reprap.org/
> found at
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fused_deposition_modeling
>


Only there is one problem. You need one to start from. I don't quite have  
the time to wait for one of my scrap printers to mutate into anything  
useful ;-)
If i have that one to start from, well, that's all i need really.


I'm not quite sure all this stuff will have any real application any time  
soon, i mean, building something to replicate itself takes quite a lot of  
resources (think of what effort it is for humans). You needs loads of  
energy and materials for the replicating component. If you use a purpose  
built machine to make something all that overhead is not required and you  
can just build a new machine if you need a better one instead of hoping  
evolution does the trick.

OTOH for software it seems to work a bit, i guess mostly because things  
can be done _real fast_ with software.

ST