The bane of self-replication: Imperfect copying

How is this facility being maintained? By the factories 3D printing new components. Okay, so far so good. How are the factories being maintained? The factories 3D print new factory components. In particular, how are the 3D printers maintained? Replacement printers are themselves 3D printed.

The specifications on these things will not be 100% the same. This means that the capabilities of the factory will drift over time, as the collection of machinery is constantly cycled through new "generations". Effectively, you have a population that mutates over time. The 10th generation of "descendants" from the original manufactories were probably basically the same. The 1000th generation, imperfect copying repeated over and over and over, is a hunk of junk in comaprison.

This wasn't a big problem before, when the people running the show knew what they were doing. They would inspect the new equipment and run it through a body of tests. If it deviates too much, the new unit is scrapped. If a bad unit somehow gets through the body of tests, they'd remove it soon after installation.

But once the collapse happened, they stopped really understanding this. They got lax. Let's suppose that much of the maintenance documentation and expertise was lost in the Great Whatever. The survivors wouldn't be able to tell that subtle problems were creeping up on them. They said 'eh, this seems to be working fine' and the level of quality gradually degraded over time. Such a long time it tooks thousands of years for anyone to notice.

When they look, they find that (for instance) the expected shelf lives of a new (say) door jamb or air filter has decayed to such a large degree that components that used to last for 10 years now have to be replaced twice a month. It just got worse so slowly nobody ever caught on.

After they notice things have gotten so bad the facility is nearly constantly in danger of catastrophic decompression (and the like) it then takes them awhile to figure out what the problem really is.

The bane of self-replication: Imperfect copying

How is this facility being maintained? By the factories 3D printing new components. Okay, so far so good. How are the factories being maintained? The factories 3D print new factory components. In particular, how are the 3D printers maintained? Replacement printers are themselves 3D printed.

The specifications on these things will not be 100% the same. This means that the capabilities of the factory will drift over time, as the collection of machinery is constantly cycled through new "generations". Effectively, you have a population that mutates over time. The 10th generation of "descendants" from the original manufactories were probably basically the same. The 1000th generation, imperfect copying repeated over and over and over, is a hunk of junk in comparison.

This wasn't a big problem before, when the people running the show knew what they were doing. They would inspect the new equipment and run it through a body of tests. If it deviates too much, the new unit is scrapped. If a bad unit somehow gets through the body of tests, they'd remove it soon after installation.

But once the collapse happened, they stopped really understanding this. They got lax. Let's suppose that much of the maintenance documentation and expertise was lost in the Great Whatever. The survivors wouldn't be able to tell that subtle problems were creeping up on them. They said 'eh, this seems to be working fine' and the level of quality gradually degraded over time. Such a long time it tooks thousands of years for anyone to notice.

When they look, they find that (for instance) the expected shelf lives of a new (say) door jamb or air filter has decayed to such a large degree that components that used to last for 10 years now have to be replaced twice a month. It just got worse so slowly nobody ever caught on.

After they notice things have gotten so bad the facility is nearly constantly in danger of catastrophic decompression (and the like) it then takes them awhile to figure out what the problem really is.

#The bane of self-replication: Imperfect copying

How is this facility being maintained? By the factories 3D printing new components. Okay, so far so good. How are the factories being maintained? The factories 3D print new factory components. In particular, how are the 3D printers maintained? Replacement printers are themselves 3D printed.

The specifications on these things will not be 100% the same. This means that the capabilities of the factory will drift over time, as the collection of machinery is constantly cycled through new "generations". Effectively, you have a population that mutates over time. The 10th generation of "descendants" from the original manufactories were probably basically the same. The 1000th generation, imperfect copying repeated over and over and over, is a hunk of junk in comaprison.

This wasn't a big problem before, when the people running the show knew what they were doing. They would inspect the new equipment and run it through a body of tests. If it deviates too much, the new unit is scrapped. If a bad unit somehow gets through the body of tests, they'd remove it soon after installation.

But once the collapse happened, they stopped really understanding this. They got lax. Let's suppose that much of the maintenance documentation and expertise was lost in the Great Whatever. The survivors wouldn't be able to tell that subtle problems were creeping up on them. They said 'eh, this seems to be working fine' and the level of quality gradually degraded over time. Such a long time it tooks thousands of years for anyone to notice.

When they look, they find that (for instance) the expected shelf lives of a new (say) door jamb or air filter has decayed to such a large degree that components that used to last for 10 years now have to be replaced twice a month. It just got worse so slowly nobody ever caught on.

After they notice things have gotten so bad the facility is nearly constantly in danger of catastrophic decompression (and the like) it then takes them awhile to figure out what the problem really is.

The bane of self-replication: Imperfect copying

How is this facility being maintained? By the factories 3D printing new components. Okay, so far so good. How are the factories being maintained? The factories 3D print new factory components. In particular, how are the 3D printers maintained? Replacement printers are themselves 3D printed.

The specifications on these things will not be 100% the same. This means that the capabilities of the factory will drift over time, as the collection of machinery is constantly cycled through new "generations". Effectively, you have a population that mutates over time. The 10th generation of "descendants" from the original manufactories were probably basically the same. The 1000th generation, imperfect copying repeated over and over and over, is a hunk of junk in comaprison.

This wasn't a big problem before, when the people running the show knew what they were doing. They would inspect the new equipment and run it through a body of tests. If it deviates too much, the new unit is scrapped. If a bad unit somehow gets through the body of tests, they'd remove it soon after installation.

But once the collapse happened, they stopped really understanding this. They got lax. Let's suppose that much of the maintenance documentation and expertise was lost in the Great Whatever. The survivors wouldn't be able to tell that subtle problems were creeping up on them. They said 'eh, this seems to be working fine' and the level of quality gradually degraded over time. Such a long time it tooks thousands of years for anyone to notice.

When they look, they find that (for instance) the expected shelf lives of a new (say) door jamb or air filter has decayed to such a large degree that components that used to last for 10 years now have to be replaced twice a month. It just got worse so slowly nobody ever caught on.

After they notice things have gotten so bad the facility is nearly constantly in danger of catastrophic decompression (and the like) it then takes them awhile to figure out what the problem really is.