Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines
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Edited By:Robert A. Freitas, Jr.Institute for Molecular Manufacturing Ralph C. Merkle Georgia Institute of Technology ISBN: 978-1-57059-690-2 Published: 2004-10-18 This book may be purchased as an eBook (pdf) for $99, or individual chapters (pdf) may be purchased from the list below for $19. |
This book offers a general review of the voluminous theoretical and experimental literature pertaining to physical self-replicating systems. The principal focus here is on self-replicating machine systems. Most importantly, we are concerned with kinematic self-replicating machines: systems in which actual physical objects, not mere patterns of information, undertake their own replication. Following a brief burst of activity in the 1950s and 1980s, the field of kinematic replicating systems design received new interest in the 1990s with the emerging recognition of the feasibility of molecular nanotechnology. The field has experienced a renaissance of research activity since 1999 as researchers have come to recognize that replicating systems are simple enough to permit experimental laboratory demonstrations of working devices.
Chapters available from this book
APPENDIX B Design Notes on Some Aspects of the Merkle Freitas Molecular Assembler
Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle
Geometrical Derivation of Assembler Dimensions A preliminary design iteration revealed that the physical dimensions of the proposed molecular assembler are constrained by the choice of 4 box-specific geometrical parameters and 7 additional geometrical parameters related to the operation of the i...
APPENDIX A Data for Replication Time and Replicator Mass
Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle
Data for replication time (τ) as a function of replicator mass (M) for 126 biological species,2600 1 chemical species,1372 and 9 actual or proposed artificial kinematic replicating systems across a size range spanning nearly 20 orders of magnitude, drawn from numerous sources (most apprecia...
CHAPTER 6 Motivations for Molecular-Scale Machine Replicator Design
Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle
In 1959, Feynman2182 proposed that we could arrange atoms in most of the ways permitted by physical law. Von Neumann3 analyzed a few basic architectures for self-replicating systems in the 1940s and early 1950s, and several possible implementations of von Neumann’s kinematic replicators were des...
CHAPTER 3 Macroscale Kinematic Machine Replicators
Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle
Specific proposals and realizations of von Neumann’s kinematic replicators and related physical implementations of macroscale machine replicators or self-replicating factory systems are of the greatest interest in the context of this book. Penrose,683 quoting Kemeny,243 complained that the body ...
CHAPTER 2 Classical Theory of Machine Replication
Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle
The early history of machine replication theory is largely the record of von Neumann’s thinking on the matter during the 1940s and 1950s, particularly his kinematic and cellular models, described below. Von Neumann did not finish or publish most of his work on this subject prior to his untimely ...
CHAPTER 1 The Concept of Self-Replicating Machines
Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle
For most of human history, man’s tools and machines bore no resemblance to living organisms and gave no hint of any commonality between the living and the artificial.150 In Paleolithic times,151-158 most machines manufactured by man were primitive bone or wooden sticks, crudely shaped handaxes a...


