Autonomously self-replicating machines have long caught the imagination^{1, 2, 3} but have yet to acquire the sophistication of biological systems, which assemble structures from disordered building blocks. Here we describe the autonomous self-replication of a reconfigurable string of parts from randomly positioned input components. Such components, if suitably miniaturized and mass-produced, could constitute self-fabricating systems whose assembly is brought about by the parts themselves.

1. Center for Bits and Atoms, MIT Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

Correspondence to: Joseph M. Jacobson¹ Email: jacobson@media.mit.edu

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