star trek - Who invented or theorized the replicator?

I've been told that a scientist theoretically invented the idea of a replicator, like the one used in Star Trek.

Can anyone confirm this, or cite the first use of a replicator-type technology in science fiction?

Answer

You're probably thinking of John von Neumann, and his 1966 work Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata. Self-replication machines are sometimes referred to as von Neumann machines in his honour.

And then in 1986, K. Eric Drexler published The Engines of Creation, which was the first popular account of microscopic self-replicating machines, or nanotechnology.

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Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

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