The Self-Replicating Probe

A deep-space probe is designed to build copies of itself before shutting down: it produces 0 copies with probability 14 \frac{1}{4} , 1 copy with probability 14 \frac{1}{4} , or 2 copies with probability 12 \frac{1}{2} , and every copy later does the same, independently. Starting from a single probe, what is the probability that the entire line of probes eventually dies out?

Answer

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