To check out any of the lectures available from Great Courses Plus go to http://ow.ly/dweH302dILJ We’ll soon be capable of building self-replicating robots. This will not only change humanity’s future but reshape the galaxy as we know it. Get your own Space Time t­shirt at http://bit.ly/1QlzoBi Tweet at us! @pbsspacetime Facebook: facebook.com/pbsspacetime Email us! pbsspacetime [at] gmail [dot] com Comment on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/pbsspacetime Support us on Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Help translate our videos! null Previous Episode - Is there a 5th Fundamental Force https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuvwcsfXIIo Should we Build a Dyson Sphere? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW55cViXu6s Self-assembling robots are referred to as von Neumann machines after the man responsible for originally proposing them, John von Neumann. Since then, the potential of these machines and their ability to proliferate throughout known space has made galactic colonization seem not only possible but perhaps inevitable. Written and hosted by Matt O’Dowd Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com) References: von Neumann, John The Theory of Self-reproducing Automata, Urbana, IL: Univ. of Illinois Press. ed. A. Burks, 1966 Robert A. Freitas Jr., Ralph C. Merkle, Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 2004; http://www.MolecularAssembler.com/KSRM.htm Robo3D R1 printing an upgrade for itself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e_Bfo1fD3o