This was posted before... "you could also make most of the parts to make another 3D printer" is not self-replication.
We don't expect this machine to be able to make itself out of thin air (though that would be awesome). But in order to be self-replicating, it must be able to build and assemble itself automatically from a set of input materials with no human intervention other than providing the input materials.
As it is, it is not self-replicating, it is merely "capable of producing some of its own parts to help in the later assembly of a copy of itself" - by no means an unworthy achievement, but let's call a cat a cat.
If it was able to produce all its parts but needed human intervention to assemble them, it would still not be self-replicating, merely "capable of producing all of its parts so that copies can be manually assembled".
Unfortunately, this machine is incapable of self-replication by design, since it cannot interace with an output product larger than or the same size as itself. Given this, it is even more wrong to call it self-replicating.
We don't expect this machine to be able to make itself out of thin air (though that would be awesome). But in order to be self-replicating, it must be able to build and assemble itself automatically from a set of input materials with no human intervention other than providing the input materials.
As it is, it is not self-replicating, it is merely "capable of producing some of its own parts to help in the later assembly of a copy of itself" - by no means an unworthy achievement, but let's call a cat a cat.
If it was able to produce all its parts but needed human intervention to assemble them, it would still not be self-replicating, merely "capable of producing all of its parts so that copies can be manually assembled".
Unfortunately, this machine is incapable of self-replication by design, since it cannot interace with an output product larger than or the same size as itself. Given this, it is even more wrong to call it self-replicating.