Tuesday, June 28, 2022 – 10:15 p.m.
Science, the 3D printer as a global builder
Oxford researcher studied
Rome, June 28 (askanews) – “The 3D printer as a universal builder, capable of reproducing any object and even itself.” This is what emerged from a lecture by Chiara Marlito, a researcher in theoretical physics at Wolfson College, Oxford University, to students at Side Academy.
“The universal constructor is an idea born of the highly creative mind of the mathematician and physicist John von Neumann,” the scientist explained to the boys of the Verona Academy of Computer Graphics. In the 1950s he created this type of machine ideal for simulating the properties of living things, because he realized that by observing a cell that only reproduces, self-reproduction is allowed from a physical point of view. Self-production occurs daily in organisms, but is not allowed in the context of a Turing machine, for the general computer. “
“Then he invented the universal builder. It’s called a constructor, because you want to do some kind of paradox with the computer, so it’s an object that not only does arithmetic but can do general conversions, given the raw materials and given a program that describes what you want to produce. . The universal builder does. Perform the step-by-step instructions in this program and construct the desired object. He must also be able to make a copy of himself, being himself a potential object. The 3D printer was considered by John von Neumann to be a multifunctional 3D printer that could also make a copy of itself if needed. “
Therefore, it is legitimate to ask ourselves at this point what are the limits of this machine, that is, what things can be built. “The universal builder is a very simple idea but it is also very powerful. We can imagine, taking into account the laws of physics, that the universal constructor is incapable of creating a particle accelerator that makes them advance faster than the speed of light, ”explains Chiara Marlito.
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