Simplifying Assumptions for the Design and Construction of an SSR

While the discussion so far has focused on building a fully-autonomous SSR and the difficulties encountered therein, it is possible to reduce the complexity of its design and construction by making some simplifying assumptions. These might include the following  

Eliminate the requirement that the SSR produces its own energy. The electrical energy (at an appropriate voltage/amperage) will be supplied to the artihcial SSR from the environment. 

Eliminate the requirement that the SSR has the ability to select, identify and accept through its input gateway appropriate raw materials. All raw materials will be supplied as stock materials to the artificial SSR. An additional, optional simplification could be that all stock materials are labeled appropriately (e.g., with bar codes or RFIDs labels). However, as an illustration, the SSR will still need to use stock copper fed through the input gateways to fabricate copper wires of certain gauges or to use copper in the fabrication of electrical motor parts. 

Eliminate the requirement that the SSR fabricate the most technically demanding parts, components, and assemblies (e.g., computer boards, microprocessors, semiconductor chips, memories, etc.). These high-technology parts/-components (referred to as vitamins in the self-replication literature) will be supplied and carefully labeled from the environment through the input gateways. 

Eliminate the requirement that the information repositories (information catalogs) that drive the functions of the SSR reside within the SSR. This requirement needs to be replaced with requirements for the SSR to possess reliable, high speed communication capabilities to access the information catalogs (and possibly part of the software) residing somewhere outside the SSR. This assumption may simplify certain elements of the SSR design but will make other requirements, such as communication and availability, more stringent for both the SSR and for the external information resource. 

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