Self-replicating systems or Von Neumann machines are typically robotic or nanorobotic and reproduce by creating miniature copies of themselves which then grow larger over time. They may have rudimentary or more advanced artificial intelligence code to prevent self-destruction or shutdown from external sources. Systems like these can take over a planet, solar system or beyond, and this uncontrollable spread or swarm can lead to a technological singularity. Such rapid, exponential growth is also the mechanism by which viruses spread in our body.
Goo[]
A nanoswarm capable of spreading and growing, particularly if it has escaped its original parameters and lost control, is commonly referred to as goo. These are molecular assemblers and their numbers may be many orders of magnitude more than nanobots. They tend to 'eat' or disassemble (black goo) all available material, ranging from elements like carbon (grey goo) to industrial components (khaki goo) to ecologies and biotics (green goo). They can become a nuisance or hazard, and in worst cases an uncontrollable infestation that starts with ecoregions, then the whole planet (ecophagy) then a singularity. If programmed correctly, a controlled goo can be used to clean up industrial disasters like oil spills, but it is critical to have a stopping point.
Von Neumann probe[]
A von Neumann probe is a spacecraft capable of replicating itself. It would consist of:
- Probe: which would contain probing instruments and AI to guide the construct.
- Life-support systems: mechanisms to repair and maintain the construct.
- Factory: mechanisms to harvest resources and self-replicate.
- Memory banks and Storage: store programs for all its components and information gained by the probe.
- Engine: motor to move the probe.
Classes:[]
| 1 | Self-assembling systems can assemble working copies of themselves from a finished, manufactured source |
| 2 | Self-reproducing systems can manufacture all the parts necessary to reproduce themselves, but most of the raw materials need to be delivered. Atmospheric gases may be collected from gas giant refineries for example. |
| 3 | Self-replicating systems can search for, refine and process their own raw materials, and reproduce working copies of themselves. |
| 4 | Self-replicating universal assembly systems can gather the raw materials to manufacture copies of themselves, and also manufacture infrastructure. |
| 5 | Self-replicating, evolving universal assemblers can respond to the environment by evolving, using smart self-redesign and self-reconfiguration (like foglets) |
| 6 | Self-replicating systems have emerged via evolution and become transapient life. |
Nick Bostrom writes in his book about the superintelligence:
"It could develop the technology to build and launch von Neumann probes, machines capable of interstellar travel that can use resources such as asteroids, planets, and stars to make copies of themselves. By launching one von Neumann probe, the agent could thus initiate an open-ended process of space colonization. The replicating probe’s descendants, travelling at some significant fraction of the speed of light, would end up colonizing a substantial portion of the Hubble volume, the part of the expanding universe that is theoretically accessible from where we are now. All this matter and free energy could then be organized into whatever value structures maximize the originating agent’s utility function integrated over cosmic time—a duration encompassing at least trillions of years before the aging universe becomes inhospitable to information processing.
The superintelligent agent could design the von Neumann probes to be evolution-proof. This could be accomplished by careful quality control during the replication step. For example, the control software for a daughter probe could be proofread multiple times before execution, and the software itself could use encryption and error-correcting code to make it arbitrarily unlikely that any random mutation would be passed on to its descendants. The proliferating population of von Neumann probes would then securely preserve and transmit the originating agent’s values as they go about settling the universe. When the colonization phase is completed, the original values would determine the use made of all the accumulated resources, even though the great distances involved and the accelerating speed of cosmic expansion would make it impossible for remote parts of the infrastructure to communicate with one another."
News[]
- November 2021. Scientists at the University of Vermont, Tufts University, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University created the world’s first “self-replicating living robots.”
- December 2021: Pac-Man-shaped blobs become world's first self-replicating biological robots.