Abstract
An idealization of chemical combination is formulated as a model of computability, and it is shown that this model has universal computational power just in case assembly has at least two-dimensional space in which to occur. It is also shown that this model, under reinterpretation, corresponds to a cellular automaton in which growth occurs by differentiation only (i.e., the state into which any cell is born is thereadfter fixed). Hence this latter model of growth is also computationally universal.
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Literature
Baer, R. M. 1973. “Computation by Assembly.”Technical Report No. 12, Computer Science Dept., University of California, Berkeley;J. Comp. Syst. Sci, to be published.
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Baer, R.M. Self-assembly and differentiation as models of computability. Bltn Mathcal Biology 37, 59–69 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02463492
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02463492