Is it possible to create computational substrates from a distance? Processors are manufactured by photolithography, shining a light on a chemically prepared object. Layer by layer, an "active" object with computational capabilities results.
Does/can a similar process exist that manages to do this from a distance, with common substrates that have not been prepared (possibly because they are too far away for physical manipulation)?
I'm thinking of this in the context of space exploration. Transporting human bodies is incredibly difficult across interstellar distances, but could (digital) life propagate this way?
 A: @AgniusVasiliauskas is of course right that an instruction set is useless without something at the receiving end to interpret and execute the instructions.
However, it is not beyond possibility that a relatively low-mass "something" could be made to construct anything we can imagine at another star if we can get that "something" there.  The "something" would be a Von Neumann Probe, a "universal constructor" capable of self-replication. Building a Von Neumann Probe (VNP) is a big challenge, but appears far from impossible.
Getting the Von Neumann Probe to another star within a reasonable length of time - which requires difficult acceleration to about 30% of lightspeed followed by even more difficult deceleration and guidance into an orbit around the star is probably a much bigger challenge.  The project called Breakthrough Starshot proposes to send gram-scale probes to Proxima Centauri.  The mission would only result in a brief fly-by -- because there is no provision to decelerate the probes. Given an as-yet-unimagined method for decelerating such a probe and guiding it into orbit around the star, and scaling it up to allow inclusion of an ant- or mouse-sized VNP, and given a lot of patience probably spanning centuries, it is plausible that practically anything we can build here on the Earth or in the solar system eventually could be constructed at Proxima Centauri without needing to send astronauts.
A: Transporting any instruction-set how to build any artificial object, including processor, will travel max at $c$ speed. Besides you'll need to transport whole bunch more energy/mass to actually build a machinery remotely which could be able to manufacture something. So the answer is no - it's not way much more effective than simply transporting a group of astronauts which after $N$ generations lived in a ship could reach some star $X$.
In addition to that humans are very good at working with incomplete information, reasoning with partial information or even acting when having two opposite facts. If in a cosmic ship or (distant planet) there would happen out-of-control situation,- would you like as a passenger to be supervised by an artificial intelligence or a clever astronaut with time-tested experience and good intuition ? With technology, anything can happen which is not pre-programmed in advance in chip, so sooner or later you will need a human intervention. If no such human remotely - your mission at planet X is doomed from the start.
