Voltairine 🥞🚩🖥 ⚛️ 🚀🏳️⚧️Would 3-D printers being able to fully print 3-D printers also have a kind of technological singularity effect, the same way AI being able to produce improved AI would?
mutual@sorceressofmathematics the electronics for workable 3d printers are sufficiently complex such that a self-producing machine capable of such would be a fairly general-purpose production technology. it would definitely be a "singularity" in the sense that you could demarcate a before and after where seemingly fundamental assumptions break down
@sorceressofmathematics if you haven't read Stross' Singularity Sky, i'd recommend it on this subject
Abdullah Khalid@sorceressofmathematics I don't think so. A collection of traditional subtractive manufacturing machines are self-replicating and can make a fairly complex objects if provided with (1) human labor (2) metal/wood sheets/blocks/cylinders.
3d printers reduce the need for 1. But 2 remains a critical bottleneck - the plastic/metal inputs for 3d printers have a very complex supply chain. And there is no way of automating and universalizing it yet.