History Main / RecursiveCreators

* In ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'', these are referred to as [[https://orionsarm.com/eg-topic/45bd63d42979f Neumanns]]. They're used for various purposes such as exploration, construction and warfare, often in space. However, they can act in unpredictable ways, like becoming sentient.

%%* ''Film/{{Screamers}}'': See ''Second Variety'' below.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample

** The Mozart Boids (robot birds) were made by a group of sapient robots. This leads to a discussion of the possibility that the robots will, in turn, produce a new sapient race, and questions of how they'll tell this race about humanity -- to which Florence, ever the optimist, [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1500/fc01475.htm suggests]] "Let's go meet the neighbors".

** The Mozart Boids (robot birds) were made by a group of sapient robots. This leads to a discussion of the possibility that the robots will, in turn, produce a new sapient race, and questions of how they'll tell this race about humanity -- to which Florence, ever the optimist, suggests "Let's go meet the neighbors".

* ''Series/TheGoodPlace'': Janet is essentially a sentient user interface for the inhabitants of the Good Place who has access to all of the knowledge in the universe and becomes more emotive and human like every time she's reset. In season 2, [[spoiler:after numerous resets]], she creates another person named Derek as a boyfriend. Notably he's significantly less advanced than Janet since he hasn't been reset at all, [[spoiler:at least until season 3, at which point he's gone through many resets and is much more intelligent]].

* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'': [[MadScientist Doctor]] [[BigBad Jail Scaglietti]], creator of the various [[SuperSoldier Artificial Mages]] and Combat {{Cyborg}}s in the series, is eventually revealed to be an ArtificialHuman himself [[spoiler:[[GovernmentConspiracy who was created by the very founders of the]] [[TheFederation Time-Space Administration Bureau]]]]. He had also implanted clones of himself into his ArtificialHuman creations, so that if even one of them escapes custody he could start over, keeping the recursion/looping going.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': In the Duplicator arc, Calvin's first duplicate begins making his own duplicates. HilarityEnsues.

* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'': [=CyBugs=] are robotic beetles that consume raw materials from their surroundings, and uses those resources to adapt themselves to the environment and produce offsprings. They can also consume technology to self-modify (for example, gobbling up a hapless {{Space Marine}}'s assault rifle leads to a 'bug with machine gun forelegs).

* ''Film/{{Screamers}}'': See ''Second Variety'' below.

* ''Literature/FeetOfClay'' revolves around golems creating [[spoiler: a "king" golem. It doesn't go so well.]]
%%* ''Literature/{{Berserker}}'': The eponymous (and autonomous) spaceships.
%%* Creator/RobertCharlesWilson: The Hypotheticals from ''Spin'' and ''Axis'' are of the Von Neumann type.

* ''Literature/VonNeumannsWar'': Earth is attacked by Von Neumann devices, which are self replicating robots.

* UrExample: Long before the VonNeumannMachine concept appeared in fiction, William Paley's ''Natural Theology'' (1802) posited a hypothetical 'watch' that could make copies of itself, as part of a lengthy theological argument claiming proof of God.

* The Greenfly of the ''Literature/RevelationSpaceSeries'' is a human-designed terraforming technology that went rogue after it was unleashed as a weapon between two [[MileLongShip lighthuggers]] in combat. Greenfly breaks up entire planetary systems, then rebuilds it into thousands upon thousands of orbital habitats ringing the star, whilst building more of itself, [[TheStarsAreGoingOut slowly turning the stars green]]. The Shadows - beings of another universe - created their own Greenfly in their distant past, which completely destroyed their Local Group of galaxies by the time humanity contacts them in ''Absolution Gap''. In the DistantFinale in ''Galactic North'', [[spoiler: humanity is fleeing the Milky Way wholesale as Greenfly runs rampant.]]
* In Creator/StephenBaxter's ''Manifold'' trilogy, this is a recurring theme. ''Literature/ManifoldTime'' and ''Literature/ManifoldSpace'' opens with Reid Malenfant giving a speech advocating that humanity colonize the galaxy using self-replicating terraforming scout starships; for the cost of just one ship, they can shoot it to Alpha Centuari where it will break up asteroids to build more scout ships to investigate and terraform promising solar systems. In ''Manifold Space'', the discovery of an asteroid in Jupiter orbit glowing in the infrared spectrum leads to the discovery that robotic terraformers are ''here'', though [[spoiler: it is later subverted in that the 'Gaijin' robots are merely a very exotic iron-based form of mechanical life]]
* Creator/StanislawLem's "constructors", namely, but not excusively, Trurl and Klapaucjusz from ''Literature/TheCyberiad'' are robots (they view ''palefaces'' as a silly fairy tale) who build robots. Lots of those.

* ''Literature/PhantomServer'': In the backstory to the game, the [[{{Precursors}} Founders]] developed a SubspaceAnsible but not FasterThanLightTravel, so they built self-replicating probes to travel to other stars at sublight, build {{Space Station}}s, more of themselves, and then move on. The stations are equipped with FTL radios and {{Twinmaker}}s. Thus, the Founders could travel the galaxy by using BrainUploading and sending their consciousness to be put into a newly-cloned body in another system. When they got bored, they would repeat the process and go elsewhere.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': The android Data creates its own android offspring, Lal.
%%* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'': Cylons. It didn't turn out well for them, either.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'': The imaginatively-named Replicators are what you get when you don't tell one of these machines when to stop. They're a menace to multiple galaxies, and are one of the few threats that can get Earth and the Goa'uld to [[EnemyMine set aside their differences]] and work together. Originally created by a child-like RobotGirl as toys. Their Pegasus Galaxy cousins called Asurans are able to build more versions of themselves (although they stick to the humanoid versions), but everything else they build the way everyone else does.
* ''Series/TheGoodPlace'': Janet is essentially a sentient user interface for the inhabitants of the Good Place who has access to all of the knowledge in the universe and becomes more emotive and human like every time she's reset. In season 2 [[spoiler: after numerous resets]] she creates another person named Derek as a boyfriend. Notably he's significantly less advanced than Janet since he hasn't been reset at all, [[spoiler: at least until season 3 where he's gone through many resets and is much more intelligent.]]
* ''Series/TotalRecall2070'': Detective Farve is an Alpha-Class android with a WetwareCPU and human cognition. His creator turns out to be a more primitive type of machine intelligence who initially built its own crude android body to [[BecomeARealBoy become more human]], but was fully aware that he was JustAMachine and built Farve in its own image to be more truly human.

* In ''VideoGame/StarControlII'', the Slylandro Probe is a faultily-programmed self-replicating robot spaceship which will first greet your ship in a friendly manner... then try to break it up for parts to make more probes.
* ''VideoGame/{{X}}'': In the backstory, Earth built several fleets of self-replicating, artificially intelligent terraforming drones (sometimes described as "Von Neumann machines" in the literature and the opening cinematic of ''X3: Terran Conflict''). [[AIIsACrapshoot Things went pear-shaped]] due to a faulty (or deliberately sabotaged; [[DependingOnTheWriter reports vary]]) software update, most of Earth's colonies were destroyed, and Earth nearly so. The surviving bugged drones evolved into the games' Xenon, which seek to "[[ColonyDrop terraform]]" all biological life out of existence. The Xenon continue to evolve and improve themselves, bringing in new ship designs and technology that often surpass the races of the Commonwealth, and a small handful of Terraformer CPU ships have become self-aware.

* The Alien faction in ''[[VideoGame/Earth2150 Earth 2160]]'' are all derivatives of the spider-like Mantian Lady or Flier. These can absorb resources, and use and either clone themselves or mutate into stronger combat forms.

* A ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' strip shows a couple of scientists coming to the conclusion that we are in a simulated reality. The last panel has a pair of alien scientists celebrating that our universe broke the record for how long it took a simulated reality to moon them.
* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'s'' Mozart Boids (robot birds) were made by a group of sapient robots. This leads to a discussion of the possibility that the robots will, in turn, produce a new sapient race, and questions of how they'll tell this race about humanity -- to which Florence, ever the optimist, suggests "Let's go meet the neighbors". And [[spoiler: we now know that Dr. Bowman, the creator of the sentient robot's brain design, is an uplifted chimp]].
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': The dingbots can create other Dingbots, but each successive generation is stupider and weaker. There are only three originals ("Queenie Dingbot", "Prime A" and "Prime B") built directly by Agatha, who cane make the best new bots; after about five iterations away from Agatha herself, the new dingbots are no longer functional.
* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'': The {{golem}}s and then robots continued manufacturing more of themselves after their creator's death. Because many of his [[SuperPrototype initial designs]] were beyond their understanding, subsequent generations were greatly simplified.

* ''[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=14676704340A65280400&page=1 We write the timeline for a fantasy/science fantasy/just plain weird world]]'': The Metal God is a Bracewell probe (a self-replicating space probe that establishes peaceful contact with alien civilizations, uplifts primitive ones, and terraforms barren worlds to support life) from an unknown civilization of BenevolentPrecursors. Its nemesis, Gur, is a [[labelnote:Green Goo]]read "Organitek GreyGoo"[[/labelnote]] Berserker (a self-replicating space probe that destroys alien civilizations).

* ''Series/TotalRecall2070'': Detective Farve is an Alpha-Class android with a WetwareCPU and human cognition. His creator turns out to be a more primitive type of machine intelligence who initially built its own crude android body to [[PinocchioSyndrome become more human]], but was fully aware that he was JustAMachine and built Farve in its own image to be more truly human.