Autofac

Autofac is a 1955 science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick that features one of the earliest treatments of self-replicating machines. It is set some years after an apocalyptic world war has devestated Earth's civilizations, leaving only a network of hardened robot "autofacs" in operation to supply goods to the human survivors. These autofacs monopolized the planet's resources, however, and in the course of the war everyone who had access to the system's command codes had been killed so once humanity had recovered enough to want to begin reconstructing civilization on their own they were unable to shut the autofacs down.

External links

• http://www.polyamory.org/~howard/Nanotechnology/Autofac.html