Philosophy

Background to the RepRap Project

RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-Prototyper.

A rapid prototyper is a machine that can manufacture objects directly (usually, though not necessarily, in plastic) under the control of a computer.

A universal constructor is a machine that can replicate itself and - in addition - make other industrial products. Such a machine would have a number of interesting characteristics, such as being subject to Darwinian evolution, increasing in number exponentially, and being extremely low-cost.

The project described in these pages is working towards creating a universal constructor by using rapid prototyping, and then giving the results away free under the GNU General Public Licence to allow other investigators to work on the same idea. We are trying to prove the hypothesis: Rapid prototyping and direct writing technologies are sufficiently versatile to allow them to be used to make a von Neumann Universal Constructor.

Here is a .pdf executive summary of the project intended to give the reader a quick overview.

This page contains links to articles and papers written by the RepRap researchers on the social, economic, and philosophical aspects of the RepRap project.

Genesis

How the RepRap Project came about and what it may mean if it is successful. This paper was written by AdrianBowyer just before he started the project to set out his initial ideas.

John von Neumann and the Universal Constructor

RepRap is a form of Universal Constructor. A Universal Constructor is a machine that can copy itself. The idea was originally von Neumann's.

Technical, Biomimetic, and Economic aspects of RepRap

This is a reprint of AdrianBowyer's keynote address on RepRap at the Seventh National Conference on Rapid Design, Prototyping & Manufacturing, at the Centre for Rapid Design and Manufacture in High Wycombe in June 2006.

Chinese Growth Hurdles toward a New Great Wall

An analysis by ForrestHiggs of the likely impact of RepRap on future Chinese industrial growth, looking at parallels with the growth of nineteenth-century mechanised agriculture in the USA.

Aesthetics

The stylistic effects that RepRap may have on product design and architecture.

-- Main.AdrianBowyer - 26 Jul 2006