There is so much fluff and inconsequential theories tossed around to explain creativity. Working with AI resolved this for me: creativity is the rule, not the exception. It is not creativity that needs explanation, it is the absence.

PS. It is so cathartic to watch that robot dog run off the edge of the world with that soaring piano powering its motion!

Regards,
WM

I think it was Von Neumann who first had the idea of self-replicating machines. He died in 1957.

While it is unlikely to literally turn the world into grey goo Reprap is VERY likely to have a profound and very destructive effect on established supply chains on which established manufacturing industries depend.

As a small example, a year ago I cracked the lid to the windshield washer tank in my Jeep. A replacement cost me about $5.80. Now, I can make one on my Reprap machine literally for a few cents worth of plastic.

When you think of almost any appliance in your home, the cost of the bits that actually make it work is usually about 5-10% of the sale price. The rest is the casing in which the bits fit and costs another 5-10%. The rest of the price you pay goes to profit and distribution costs.

Reprap is a VERY disruptive technology to established ways of doing things. The squawks and brainless behaviours we’ve seen exhibited by the RIAA and MPAA over the past 5-6 years over file sharing will be nothing compared to the noise that manufacturers, both here and abroad will be making with Reprap technology becomes commonplace.

Cory Doctorow summed up what we can be looking forward to back at the beginning of 2006 in his story, Printcrime.

http://craphound.com/?p=573

It’s not a pretty picture.