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.

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