Abstract
In an attempt to explore potential for the evolutionary growth of complexity and distinctive mutational pathways, we revisit the machine self-reproduction originally proposed by John von Neumann. Preliminary experiments have been run using a designed von Neumann style self-reproducer novelly implemented within the Avida world. Among initial results, we have observed ones where the designed self-reproducer in this particular world degenerates into a self-copier with surprising ease. In this paper, we briefly report the result and discuss implications and future works.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
We have included no explicit ancillary machinery in our design of the ancestor, that is, every instruction of its phenome somehow commits to the reproductive process. If, through accumulated mutations, there should prove to be any part of the program that does not necessarily engage in the reproductive process, then that part may be regarded as ancillary machinery in von Neumann’s terms.
References
Von Neumann J (1951) The general and logical theory of automata. In: Cerebral mechanisms in behavior, pp 1–41
McMullin B (2000) John von Neumann and the evolutionary growth of complexity: looking backward, looking forward. Artif Life 6(4):347–361
McMullin B, Taylor T, von Kamp A (2001) Who needs genomes?
Adami C (1997) Introduction to artificial life. Springer, Berlin
Ofria C, Wilke CO (2004) Avida: a software platform for research in computational evolutionary biology. Artif Life 10(2):191–229
Ray T (1994) An evolutionary approach to synthetic biology: Zen and the art of creating life. Artif Life 1(1/2):179–209
Acknowledgements
This work has been supported by the European Complexity Network (Complexity-NET) through the Irish Research Council for Science and Technology (IRCSET) under the collaborative project EvoSym. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for the original paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Hasegawa, T., McMullin, B. (2013). Revisiting von Neumann’s Architecture of Machine Self-reproduction Using Avida . In: Gilbert, T., Kirkilionis, M., Nicolis, G. (eds) Proceedings of the European Conference on Complex Systems 2012. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00395-5_38
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00395-5_38
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-00394-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-00395-5
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)