Grey goo robots

[Arislan]

Suppose we create robots capable of self replicating with a minimum of waste? If we let them loose, would they eat up the planet until there was nothing left but grey goo and waste?

I was thinking they would look like hexapods and have a couple tool arms, be about the size of a computer mouse, and work in tandem to create more of themselves from any inorganic things they ran into, like metal, rubber, glass, sand...so they would recreate every circuit every time.

I wonder if that would ever be possible. Or maybe they could build little factories that built new bots, then the bots would bring raw materials to the factories...

This is a major engineering enigma right there. How would they be powered? They would need to communicate somehow. I can imagine dumping a shoebox of these on an old car and then after a while there would be a huge pile of them crawling away leaving only a pile of dust.

[Admin]

If we let them loose, would they eat up the planet until there was nothing left but grey goo and waste?

no, for the same reason bacteria hasnt taken over the planet yet . . . limited resources . . .