Basic Concept
A self-replicating machine would need to have the capacity to gather energy and raw materials, process the raw materials into finished components, and then assemble them into a copy of itself. It is unlikely that this would all be contained within a single monolithic structure, but would rather be a group of cooperating machines or an automated factory that is capable of manufacturing all of the machines that make it up. The factory could produce mining robots to collect raw materials, construction robots to put new machines together, and repair robots to maintain itself against wear and tear, all without human intervention or direction. The advantage of such a system lies in its ability to expand its own capacity rapidly and without additional human effort; in essence, the initial investment required to construct the first clanking replicator would have an arbitrarily large payoff with no additional labor cost, with future returns discounted by their present value.
Such a machine violates no physical laws, and we already possess the basic technologies necessary for some of the more detailed proposed designs.
Noting another proof that self-replicating machines are possible is the simple fact that all living organisms are self replicating by definition.
Read more about this topic: Clanking Replicator
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