I recently learned about quines, they are essentially self-replicating pieces of code. They exist in the theoretical computer world and serve virtually no purpose other than to leave computer nerds in awe, scratching their head. But it got me thinking, does physics even permit quines in the real world? Even my layman's understanding of physics leads me to think that, no it's not possible. For something to be perfectly self-replicating, it would need to be able to perfectly duplicate itself without any inputs. This obviously breaks our understanding of physics, since no matter can be created or destroyed, only transformed.
This definition also raises and interesting and contradictory fact about quines: the quine can only exist on a silicon chip in the presence of an electrical current. At least in modern computing, perhaps there are some mechanical forms of computing I am leaving out, but even then wouldn't they also require some amount of energy to initiate the prompt? In this sense, quines are obviously not perfectly self-replicating, since they require some amount of external energy to initiate the replication.
Nonetheless, this is an interesting concept and I wonder if there's a way to make it more real-world. Here's a question:
If you were able to leap forward in time by [x] years and return to the present with any item you want, what would it be?
My first instinct is to go with winning lottery ticket numbers, stock picks, or some kind of useful information about the future that I can use to make a profit. I think there's probably something more valuable than that.
I break down the types of artifacts I could bring back to the present based on the size of the leap:
<1 year: lottery numbers, sports almanacs
<10 years: S&P 500 stock picks, advanced chip designs, new algorithms
<80 years (the average length of the human lifespan): anti aging technology, Ai,
1,000 years: some super advanced technology
Infinity: omniscient knowledge of the structure of the universe
Theoretically, the best possible answer is "whatever allows me to repeat the process again". This is the equivalent of asking the Magic Genie for more wishes. AKA a real-world quine. But, since you have no knowledge of the future you have no guarantee that your leap x years into the future will actually produce the item you want. To flip it around, if you want a time machine, how far into the future do you have to leap? This is an incredibly tricky question...