Advances in Printing

First of all, props to Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the mechanical printing press and namesake of an awesome website. A more recent advancement in printing technology is 3-d printing, which is especially interesting because printers are themselves 3-dimensional. Lo and behold: this past May a 3-d printer replicated itself. From RepRap.org: 

"Not counting nuts and bolts RepRap can make 60% of its parts; the other parts are designed to be cheaply available everywhere. This is an interesting coincidence: we can make 60% of our proteins; the other parts are evolved to be cheaply available everywhere..."

The next version of RepRap will be able to manufacture its own electric circuitry. The Mary Shelleys out there are already picturing a world overrun with Erector sets gone bad; having grown up with a deep knowledge of how easily LEGO robots break, I'm quite optimistic that's a war humanity would win.