Cellular Automata and Fractal Evolution

The Paradox of Self-Replicating Machines

Before Watson and Crick elucidated the mechanism of DNA replication, von Neumann solved the problem of machine replication.

The blueprint is a blueprint of just the machine, but now the machine contains a photocopier.

Machine replication works in three steps:

1. Machine P (parent) reads the blueprint and makes a copy of itself, machine C (child).

2. Machine P now puts its blueprint in the photocopier, making a copy of the blueprint.

3. Machine P hands the copy of the blueprint to machine C.

Note the blueprint is used in two ways, as active instructions and as passive data. We shall encounter this idea again.

Return to The Paradox of Self-Replicating Machines.