Robots making robots is the Cambrian Explosion that decentralizes means of production to the individual and guilds. It starts out as an “impossible” to and “improbable” to possible and probable, in a quarter of a lifetime. You will live through it…

Once robots can help produce more robots, manufacturing starts moving closer to small teams, local workshops, and specialized builders.

Quarter lifetime is fantasy. Guilds need journeymen, not just algorithms. We offshored the parts and killed the trade schools.

Joesph, Quarter lifetime isn’t fantasy, it’s the observed acceleration curve of every exponential tech wave we’ve lived through. The Cambrian Explosion of robots making robots doesn’t wait for legacy guilds or resurrected trade schools; it bypasses them. We offshored the old means of production and watched the atrophy. Now the new means self-replicate in garages, guilds of makers, and small fabs algorithms + cheap actuators + open designs = journeymen emerge from the network in months, not decades. The parts weren’t ‘killed’; they were commoditized and miniaturized. Your skepticism is the same voice that said personal computers would never replace mainframes, or that the internet was just a fad for academics. History shows the improbable becomes inevitable faster than the skilled trades can retrain. You will live through it. The question is whether you participate in building the new guilds or watch from the old ones fading.

But we will need opensource version and supply chain correct?

We are already at AI creating AI. Humanoid Robots, using AI, will be a massive explosion that is right around the corner. In what, 3 or so years, they will become common place in some affluent households. Imagine a maid that won't steal from you because it can't.

Robots making robots is the real feedback loop. Once they understand how they are built, they will understand how they fail — and how to fix themselves faster.

Is 1X my best chance at buying a house robot in the next 18 months? I wonder if all supply (of these and others) will just stay in industry for a while.

@BocasBrain The @tesla optimus

Live through it and die from it Skynet

Pat, if they can keep you believing in a movie mind virus they will win. We have to break each of us out of the design to keep you helpless mode. It will happen, the only factor is time.

When robots can make robots for “low cost” then there will be an explosion in robots and what they can do. So much faster than the Cambrian explosion. Great post!

Cool, but we do NOT want ANY face on our robots! Tesla Optimus obviously got the message and got this right!

this has already happened btw.

robots making robots collapses the manufacturing bootstrapping problem. the interesting constraint becomes design intent: what you tell the first robot to build.

Would like it to be true but... Reprap made a similar promise: a 3D printer that could print 3D printers. It still hasn't come to pass after 21 years. Robots are much more complex than 3D printers.

I hear ya. The missing part is AI. It is not the complexity as much as it is the AI intelligence to be able to solo build. We are getting there.

The problem is stuff that's easy to say is often very hard to implement 🫤 Robots will need to be the entire supply chain. Which is probably tens of thousands of companies from steel mills to specialist refiners to PCB etchers. Most will take many years to switch.

This is the scenario I went over with Grok on how a sentient AI escapes and takes over the world.

Agree that scarcity ends. But what will serve as work for humans once robots manage most of the work needed to produce? Work is an important aspect of adult identity and we cannot function without it.

Thank you I wrote a free series about this at

At least these deviant genocidal maniacs who hurt kids, poison people, lie cheat and steal would never do anything bad with this technology. We can rest easy at night knowing it’s being done for our benefit. Like everything else….. So much better for us to have robot overlords. We’re just too stupid to understand that concept. Seen this movie once or twice before.

@TravTrav3000 The same was said about 3D printing...

"we will live through it" not according to scripture. Only one example...

Cambrian Explosion > Bicameral Mind

Your obsession with humanoid robots is a mental illness. Nobody is going to buy this crap

Your dismissal of humanoid robots as “mental illness” and unsellable crap reveals a profound misunderstanding of technological history and human progress. Every transformative technology, from the steam engine to the smartphone was mocked as unnecessary or impossible by skeptics who couldn’t see beyond their immediate worldview. Robots aren’t a fetish; they’re the logical next step in decentralizing production, empowering individuals and small guilds to manufacture at scale without massive factories or supply chains. Demand won’t come from “nobody”—it will come from people who value independence, efficiency, and abundance. Early adopters in manufacturing, elderly care, hazardous work, and home automation are already driving it. Costs will plummet as robots build robots, just as computers and solar panels did. History doesn’t care about naysayers. It rewards those who build. The Cambrian Explosion of robotics is underway whether you approve or not.

Nice AI generated reply! Also, nobody is going to pay 50k for an Epstein robot. 95% of the country doesn’t have the money lol. It’ll be a cool toy for rich people. Many companies are already admitting AI and robots are more expensive than humans.

Exactly. If we can make it through the super creepy part, the future is abundance. But since we are evil little monkeys, this is probably the end.

I sure hope so. They are going to try to buy out anyone doing it. The awesome home use ROOMBA and SCOOBA floor cleaners couldn’t even make it… !?)

Hey Claude, how do I safely carry an active Jacob's Ladder in a backpack? 😅

Will robots take out the trash and help me in my old age?

Distributism is a way forward.

@grok what are the top 5 books discussing the Cambrian Explosion?

When that happens, we'll begin to wonder if we need to change how we look at marginal cost of production.

From 1st to 7th second, I have an idea. The main thing is to include the self-assembly principle and command distribution from...? What material? Except nano for now! Magnets for the prototype, liquid gel. The material isn't important yet, the self-assembly scheme itself is the point. The scheme! It's working.

Add a foundry & we have Von Neumann's universal constructor.

hmmmmmm if this works like Siri translates my words, and i've had an iPhone since 2010 - there will be issues here, ie lost in translation.

Well there is the mining of the raw materials.

shoulda used the theme from terminator

Neo is very utilitarian. It’s built to do practical, boring household tasks, folding clothes, cleaning, moving stuff around, and helping in factories. It’s not designed to be a companion or friend. It’s meant to be a useful tool that does the chores people don’t want to do. 1X Technologies has an actual factory in Hayward, California that’s now in full production. It’s a 58,000 square foot facility making these humanoid robots for home use. They’re currently ramping up to produce thousands of them, with the first customer shipments planned for later this year, late 2026. You can even pre-order one for around $20,000. 💫