Google spreadsheet: check if cell itself is empty

Question

Is it possible to have a formula somehow on cell A1 that checks as a conditional if A1 is empty?

Obviously, the default way I'm getting a circular dependency error. However, I figure some formula might be (?) smart enough to see that when A1 is in the conditional (and not a part of the new value) it's not really a circular dependency after all.

So does a function like this exist?

Basically: if cell itself is empty -> fill it, otherwise do nothing

Answer 1

For plain old formula's, that's not possible, simply because it will create a circular dependency.