/sci/ - Science & Math

What is the point?

>>3898936
It's a hell of a lot cheaper than building one of these.

Probably, but there will likely be lots of hippies who will oppose it saying that we're destroying the natural Universe in the process. But fuck em.
>>3898936
What's the point of anything, asshat?

I wouldn't feel right about it until we can get emulate a near human intelligence.

I don't really want to be responsible for the genocide of every other organism that our probes don't recognize as biological or alive.

We're talking about the equivalent of grey goo here.

i would guess it will be possible when nanotechnology advances some more

>>3898975
I don't think nanotech is necessary, but it would make the process much more efficient.

>>3898990
We could do it with our current tech, though the cost of designing and building a number of them would be enormous.

>>3898970

Have you no sense of romance?

Imagine, a great civilisation parsecs away, that has colonised several star systems, established contact with other races, and lives in peace and harmony with all.

Then, suddenly, an unidentified object comes into their space. More friends?, thinks the alien. They send their scouts out to see what this newcomer is like. Communications with the scout is loss.

Thinks get uneasy. They scan the region and find no trace of the scouts, but the foreign ships have multiplied. A deep sense of foreboding sets on the empire.

Two hundred years later, all they know is war. Many systems were lost to the self replicating horde, but the heartland still holds out. With the best their technology has to offer they fight a losing battle against the swarm.

Finally, a brave captain decides to find answers. Taking a interstellar cruiser he blasts through the swarm, towards its source, knowing well that by the time he comes back his homeland may well be gone. But he has to know.

After relativistic years he arrives at the Sol system, to which the probes were traced. Landing on the third planet, he finds...

A bunch of faggots masturbating to Japanese cartoons on the internet.

>>3899048
I just wanted to say that I read and appreciated this post.

>>3899048
Oh god
That was fantastic.

>>3898949
If you have the technology to create self-replicating space probes chances are you're not far from replicating entire starships and O'Neill cylinder colonies.

Sometimes I look around and wonder if ancient aliens sowed humanoids here 10000 years ago with the intent to harvest when the planet is ripe. It just looks ripe for ancient alien harvest. It is something we would do with cows on a habitable planet or whatever.

wtf?
why?

we are our own von neumann probes....

>>3899320
oh boy....

aliums....

do you realize how inefficient that would be?
it's almost as dumb as those conspiritards that think aliums used us to gather fucking gold.

>>3899281
It comes down to economics. A self replicating probe is a lot cheaper to implement than building multiple manned spacecraft.