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Krasnow Institute > Monday Seminars > Abstracts Cellular Automata Models 0f Self-Replication
Since von Neumann's seminal work around 1950, computer scientists and others have studied the algorithms needed to support self-replicating systems. Much of this work has focused on abstract logical machines (automata) embedded in two-dimensional cellular spaces. This research was motivated by the desire to understand the basic information processing principles underlying self-replication, the potential long term applications of programmable self-replicating machines, and the possibility of gaining insight into biological replication and the origins of life. Past research in this area can be viewed as taking three main directions: early complex universal computer-constructors modeled after Turing machines, qualitatively simpler self-replicating loops, and efforts to view self-replication as an emergent phenomenon. In this talk, I will first give a very brief tutorial on cellular automata modeling and its past use for simulating self-replicating structures. I will then discuss our group's recent studies showing how very simple but non-trivial self-replication can occur in cellular automata models, that self-replicating structures can emerge from non-replicating components, and that genetic algorithms can be applied to automatically program simple but arbitrary structures to replicate. I will also describe recent work in which self-replicating structures are successfully programmed to do useful problem solving as they replicate.
The Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study |
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