Oh that's insane. It says it's self-replicating, but can it assemble the parts it creates or is a human needed? And what about the microchips? Those still take expensive machinery to produce, right?
Well, their goal is to make it self-replicating, but it's far from it for now. I think it can essentially make the specialized parts, but you still need to buy various common parts and assemble it yourself.
> Well, their goal is to make it self-replicating, but it's far from it for now.
Indeed. Replicators are at roughly the same point today that personal computers were in 1975. So expect that in a few decades everyone will have one in their house, able to make a very wide range of objects.
Check out the RepRap project. They're trying to design a cheap, open source 3D printer that can print itself: http://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap