Hello PH! They would not be alive. For aliveness is a natural phenomenon. To put this observation into relief, compare the living system with a classic example of the von Neumann probe: the self-replicating obelisk of Stanley Kubricks 2001: A Space Odyssey. The seemingly unbridgeable gap that separates them is that one the living system is a natural phenomenon (as A-G has already pointed out), and the other the obelisk is a human production (a kind of poetry in its way ).
Which is not to say that a human construction will always be an unnatural one. Man is, after all, natural -- part of and participant in nature. It is only to say that the human construction would be a derivative one, derived from principles transcending the human builder/designer/author/artist/architect/poet/scientist/engineer/etc., etc. A human product is not directly a product of Nature; rather it is the result of a mimicry or hypostatization of Nature and Natures laws.
Which is to say, the von Neumann probe is the model of the finest construction that an intelligent mind, in possession of the largest amount of information available about the universe at the given time, can construct. It is not a natural, but an abstract production abstracted from the order of an already given, ultimate Nature.
Nature is a riot of life, of abundant and seemingly irrepressible and unending emergence of diversity and beauty. We dont have to worry a whit about von Neumann probes coming alive anytime soon; because their human designers cant imagine at least not yet how to get a handle on the complexity problem involved, let alone figure out a way to translate that into structures formed of inanimate matter that might, like Frankenstein, come alive and stride the world by means of purely human auspices some day.
To say there is no clear and present danger is not to say, however, that von Neumann probes cant pose problems for humans any time soon. I believe the reverse understanding was the point of The Terminator series .
I myself I am already messed with and tortured by machines, every day of my life. So to speak. So I already know that sort of thing can happen! The real question is: On what scale??? :^)
Sorry to go so Hollywood on you tonight, Patrick. Good films are usually successful films, and the truly great ones are successes for what they truthfully tell us about ourselves, our societies, the human condition at large
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600 (had to do it!)