[RepRap] has been called the invention that will bring down global capitalism, start a second industrial revolution and save the environment...
- The front page of The Guardian, November 25, 2006.
Good lord, there's hype and then there's Guardian hype.
Also, can we PLEASE stop posting all these articles about RepRap.
As cheap-ass CNC systems go, it's OK, but (a) no, it CAN'T reproduce itself (it has tons of precision components that you have to buy separately, and (b) it has nothing to do with nanotech.
I'm all for posts if there's something to say, but the ceaseless boosterism for RepRap, and the unwillingness to either be realistic about RepRap or address criticism is quite annoying.
There's new news and development every week. Check out the RepRap blog (and, if that's not high-volume enough for you, the RepRap builders blog). I guess you didn't even bother to read the original article; the development of successfully constructing printed circuits from solder is news in the last couple of weeks.
Nothing can reproduce itself, strictly speaking; there are dozens of basic chemicals that even your own body needs and can't manufacture from raw atoms: vitamins, essential amino acids, Ω3 and Ω6 fatty acids, several heavy metals, and so on.
The RepRap Darwin has already successfully manufactured all of its custom parts except for the extruder nozzle and circuit boards, leaving only a few hundred dollars' worth of common off-the-shelf "vitamin" parts to buy to build the thing. At this point, it's a matter of optimization: improving the machine's reliability, further reducing the number of custom parts (and making them easier to make), simplifying and automating assembly, and so on.
In short, your criticism is false from beginning to end. Do you feel that that sufficiently "addresses" it? (Myself, I prefer to address human beings.)
I'm not affiliated with the project, I've never seen a RepRap in person, and I'm not engaged in trying to build one.
> The RepRap Darwin has already successfully manufactured all of its custom parts except for the extruder nozzle and circuit boards, leaving only a few hundred dollars' worth of common off-the-shelf "vitamin" parts
So it can extrude plastic, but can't extrude
* nozzles
* circuit boards
* guide rails
* screws
* motors
* steel rods
* thermocouple sensor
* rotary encoder
* etc., etc., etc.
That's quite a lot of "vitamins" (to use the propoganda term).
I believe that of everything you see there, the only things that the RepRap creates itself are the small white plastic bits...maybe 10% of the machine by volume, 5% by weight, and 1% by complexity.
> Check out the RepRap blog
I have. The signal to noise ratio is pretty low, and there's a lot of relentless boosterism (did I mention the OVER 100 TIMES that RepRap has been posted to news.yc?
> In short, your criticism is false from beginning to end. Do you feel that that sufficiently "addresses" it? (Myself, I prefer to address human beings.)
If you're going to do a dictionary flame, do it right. "Address a criticism" is a phrase that has been used in English for hundreds of years, even if you're not familiar with it.
Phorque, this is just commentary on the same story (RR prints first circuit) you posted the other day. That was worthy of note, but commentary on same doesn't really add anything and this particular article is really lightweight.
Good lord, there's hype and then there's Guardian hype.