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“ Theoretical biology. Machines which can construct machines, and machines which can construct replicas of themselves, display behavior which in many ways is analogous to that of natural organisms. Furthermore, as machines are designed to examine their own structure and the structures of other machines, to repair themselves and other machines, and generally to become more autonomous and more reliable, the analogies become even more apparent. ”

“ From the human standpoint, perhaps the most exciting consequence of self-replicating systems is that they provide a means for organizing potentially infinite quantities of matter. This mass could be so organized as to produce an ever-widening habitat for man throughout the Solar System. ”

“ This dispersal of humankind to many spatially separated ecosystems would ensure that no planetary-scale disaster, and, as people travel to other stars, no stellar-scale or (ultimately) galactic-scale event, could threaten the destruction of all mankind and his accomplishments. ”

“ The long-term future almost certainly will see the development of full replicative automation capability on Earth. Whether it is economical remains an open question at present. The main advantage of pure machine replicating systems over man-machine symbiotic systems is that autonomous factories can be sent to locations where there is not, or cannot be without great expense, a population of human workers adequate to operate and maintain the factory complex. ”

“ In one sense, such devices are computationally universal. That is, certain mathematical technicalities aside, they can carry out any arbitrary Turing machine computation and, accepting the Church-Turing Thesis, can also carry out any algorithmic process. Thus, if any machine can be intelligent one need look no further than to a general-purpose computer, for there is some program which will cause the machine to display the desired intelligent behavior. This is so even if one insists that brains, for example, are machines, but are not at all like digital computers. ”

“ In principle, it is possible to construct a completely autonomous lunar-based facility, but it may turn out to be inefficient or uneconomical in the future unless a few human beings are present onsite to handle unforeseen problems with the machinery. (Humans are the most compact and efficient general-purpose self-replicating systems of which we have certain knowledge.) Initial crew quarters and supplies can be transported from Earth, but much larger and more pleasant living accommodations could be manufactured in situ by lunar or orbital replicating systems. ”

“ Thus, research in self-growing and self-replicating machine systems can be viewed as a contribution to, even as F a central part of, a true theoretical biology which takes as its subject matter not merely the evolved, naturally occur ring living organisms of Earth, but lifelike mechanisms, natural or artificial, having existed or possible, wherever in L the universe they might arise. ”

“ A self-replicating manufacturing facility could produce thousands of meter-long robot rovers equipped with cameras, core samplers, and other instrumentation which could survey the entire Moon - or any other planet, for that matter - in just a few years. Such exploration would take a century by more conventional methods. Similarly, due to the low gravity, lack of atmosphere, and relative abundance of energy and raw materials, the Moon is an excellent location for the construction and launching of future generations of interplanetary exploratory spacecraft. ”

“ Just as the design of artificial mechanisms can be inspired by contemplation of evolution's apparent solutions to various design problems, so might new biological systems also be created, drawing upon designs originally conceived for artificial systems - a kind of inverse bionics. Taking this a step further, one can envisage as a research goal the gradual elimination of the perhaps arbitrary line now drawn between artificial and natural organisms, and the consideration of a more deliberate systematic investigation of the creation of hybrid biological-mechanical systems. ”

“ The resulting economic forces are impelling domestic industry to accelerate the automation of its factories.
The space program is viewed by many as a high technology venture which predominantly makes use of computers, robot spacecraft, and other trappings of automation. In reality, NASA's activities are strongly people intensive. For example, large teams of trained technicians and scientists are required to operate a robot space probe by remote control. The same economic forces at work in the marketplace are forcing NASA to rethink its traditional way of doing business. ”

“ Replicative automation technology will permit a tremendous expansion of the concept of a "laboratory" to include the Earth-Moon system and ultimately all of the bodies and fields in the Solar System. A number of grand experiments could be undertaken which would prove too costly if attempted by any other means. For example, an Earth orbital cyclotron could be constructed as a series of thousands of robot-controlled focusing coils and stationkeeping target assemblies within the terrestrial magnetosphere, with operating energies possibly as high as TeV for electrons and GeV for protons. ”

“ The final step in achieving totally autonomous machine replication requires the replacement of the human top-level managers with computers and turning over any remaining physical tasks to robot devices.
The near-term removal of all human intervention from the industrial "organisms" on Earth is highly unlikely. Certainly people may want to continue to perform various logical and physical functions for social or psychological reasons, and man may always remain the decision maker in control of which products are produced. ”

“ Recent developments in machine intelligence research has made far easier the complete automation of the entire design process. Ultimately, the capability will exist for a human to carry on a dialog with a computer system in which the person merely defines the functional specifications of the desired product and the computer determines the remaining design details autonomously. ”

“ Many manufacturing processes require at least small amounts of gravity, and the availability of solid ground for physical support may be important too. The main advantage to factories on the lunar surface is that the raw materials to be processed into finished products are right at hand - only relatively low-mass final products need be lifted from the lunar surface, rather than bulky raw materials as in the case of an orbital factory. The Moon can also be used as a shield to block sunlight or electromagnetic interference from Earth during highly sensitive observations. ”

“ No doubt there exist manufacturing operations which are not economically viable candidates for total automation in terrestrial industry - in these instances the functions either must be redesigned for full automation or else people must be permanently incorporated as symbionts of a locally teleoperated or remotely human-supervised system. ”

“ The very general theory of automata has become increasingly abstract, moving from describing mechanistic processes in terms of algebraic concepts such as groups and semigroups to employing category theory, the most abstract and general of algebraic theories. Although a certain level of understanding of what mechanisms might exist has thereby been developed, the applicability of such approaches to the design of complex systems of automata is very slight or nonexistent. ”

“ Not only will there be more automation in the space program for this reason, but also there will be missions that are difficult or impossible to conduct without using advanced machine intelligence and robotics technologies. The harsh environment of space, the significant costs of life support systems for human beings and of "man-rating" space systems for safety, and the communications problems caused by the immense distances involved in interplanetary travel have given NASA additional incentives to develop systems of total automation beyond those commonly employed in industry. ”

“ A general product factory is one which can be instructed to manufacture anything which is physically possible to make. Such a system is the physical realization of von Neumann's "universal constructor" automaton, which can construct anything constructable, given an adequate substrate and the rules of operation of his artificial cell-space universe. ”

“ Like lemmings, schools of artificial living machines could be programmed to swim to a harvesting factory when they reached adulthood.
Clearly there would be need for international controls and allocation of areas for production and harvesting. This would involve not only the political rights of nations but also questions of natural conservation. Social problems could arise in connection with the selection of products to be manufactured. An artificial plant might be designed to make a product useless to the plant itself. ”

“ When ICAM techniques are directed toward the production of components of their own systems (CAD, CAM, CAT, and robot machines) , a regenerative effect occurs in which each generation of automated factories is cheaper to construct than the preceding one. By the time this regeneration, which has been termed "superautomation" (Albus, 1976) , is achieved on Earth, there may be very little human intervention in the replication process except for supervisory and top-level guidance functions. ”

“ These machines can not only increase their memory capacity but can augment their computing power by the construction of additional active computing organs (registers, control units, etc.) and by constructing machines separate from themselves, including duplicates of themselves. Von Neumann had begun to develop a general and logical theory of automata which would have embraced all these machine types. Automaton theory has, however, never achieved the generality he sought, at least not in the sense he seems to have intended. ”

“ Supplies of energy, stored and generated, must be established if extrasolar spacecraft are to survive in the depths of interstellar space far from convenient sources of power (such as stars) for a major portion of their lives. The technologies of command, control, and communication over stellar and galactic distances ultimately also must be developed. ”

“ The difficulty of surmounting the Earth's gravitational potential makes it more efficient to consider sending information in preference to matter into space whenever possible. Once a small number of self-replicating facilities has been established in space, each able to feed upon nonterrestrial materials, further exports of mass from Earth will dwindle and eventually cease. ”

“ Given the exotic conditions prevailing on the lunar sur face and in space, and the novel materials and processes that may become available, it is highly probable that a self replicating growing lunar facility will be able to economically produce many goods directly for use in space and for export to Earth. ”

“ A trivial case of this "introspective" superiority of machines is seen in their ability to "remember." Computers can be programmed to methodically search all of their memory with a thoroughness that can evoke human envy. ”

“ The existence of large interacting populations of entities whose "genetics" are precisely known, but whose global behavior over time cannot readily be predicted, may be of great experimental value to evolutionary biologists. At present, computer simulation is the usual tool of choice for such problems. However, if the physical creation of machine populations becomes sufficiently inexpensive, experimental situations might be created in remote nonterrestrial regions. ”

“ Its source of energy is sunlight, its output electricity and high-tension transmission lines. There is bitter debate in Congress over licensing this machine to proliferate over our Western states. The progeny of one robot can easily produce ten times the present total power output of the United States. Legislation is finally passed authorizing the automaton to multiply, with the proviso that each machine shall retain a memory of the original landscape at its site, and if for any reason the site is abandoned the device is programmed to restore it to its original appearance. ”

“ The inexpensive mass-production of habitation and agricultural modules (or their components) could help open the door to more extensive lunar and space colonization by people, including recreational, industrial, medical, and educational uses, especially because of the abundant solar energy and the expected ability of replicating factories to manufacture and implement a low-cost lunar-surface-to-orbit launch capability. ”

“ After its success with the rock-eating automaton in the United States, the company places on the market an industrial development kit, designed for the needs of developing countries. For a small down payment, a country can buy an egg machine which will mature within a few years into a complete system of basic industries together with the associated transportation and communication networks, custom made to suit the specifications of the purchaser. ”

“ The distances are so large and the volumes so vast that self-replicating probes are highly desirable, even essential, to adequately and efficiently perform a reconnaissance of extrasolar star systems in a search for human habitable worlds and extraterrestrial life. ”

“ For example, though we are constantly reminded of the social value of being able "to see ourselves as others see us," our evolutionary history has left us with only a very limited capacity for accurate introspection and self-examination - though in this respect we admittedly exceed all other known evolved creatures. ”

“ Replicating systems would make possible very large-scale interplanetary mining and resource retrieval ventures. Nonterrestrial materials could be discovered, mapped, and mined using teams of surface and subsurface prospector robots manufactured en masse in an SRS factory complex. Raw materials could be dug up and sent back to wherever they were needed in the Solar System, or could be refined along the way and the waste slag used as reaction mass, or could be utilized in situ for manufacturing useful products which would then be exported. ”

“ For example, a theory of biology that takes as its subject matter only Earth-evolved forms would be as unlikely to be capable of providing adequate explanation for non-Earth forms as were attempts to account for the forms of extant organisms quite apart from their extinct progenitors. ”

“ This suggests that research on complex automata able to reconstruct, reproduce, and repair themselves might serve as a fertile source of hypotheses as to the logical control and organizational aspects of how living organisms in fact carry out these processes. Such explanatory hypotheses can apply to life like systems generally and have the advantage that they are likely to be simpler and more elegant than the necessarily ad hoc explanations of behavior for the particular organ isms of particular worlds, at particular times. ”