[-empyre-] creating environmental conditions / creating teleological perspectives

[Adrian Freed]

>Adrian Freed wrote:
>
>> The reprap vision is still just that. So little of the machine is made by itself
>> it is more analogous ecologically to the way koala bear cubs bootstrap: by eating their mothers pap.
>
>Not counting fasteners (which could easily be replaced by parts made
>by the machine itself; it would work fine, but be harder to take apart
>and to modify), RepRap makes 50% of its own parts.
>
>I wouldn't call that "so little".



How you are counting this? Volume, proportion of mechanical parts, proportion of total  number of parts, number of compounds, number of elements? By any measure I can think of
the machine makes a small fraction of what is needed to make another machine - especially considering  the electronics and metal rods. Fractions of the collective energies of hundreds of thousands of people are required in the electronic components, motor and plastics manufacturing industries for the rest. For me the "self-replication" aspect is an interesting dream worth thinking about and perhaps striving towards (as reflected in the various challenges). This doesn't detract at all from the considerable contributions to low cost 3D printing represented by the work around reprap.


>
>Best wishes
>
>Adrian

Best wishes

another
Adrian