Abstract
We introduce the distinctive, self-referential, logic of self-reproduction originally formulated by John von Neumann, and we present some initial results from novel realisations of this abstract architecture, embedded within two computational worlds: Tierra and Avida. In both cases, the von Neumann architecture proves to be evolutionarily fragile, for unanticipated, but relatively trivial, reasons. We briefly discuss some implications, and sketch prospects for further investigation.
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The Avida world bears some superficial resemblances to von Neumann’s own early formulation of an abstract cellular automaton (CA) world, particularly in its 2D network of discrete computational nodes. However, there are also fundamental differences. In the von Neumann CA, each node was a simple finite state automaton with no general purpose memory system (29 states per node, equivalent to less than 5-bits of special purpose memory); whereas each Avida node comprises a general purpose CPU and—by comparison—a substantial general purpose memory system, typically of capacity at least some hundreds or thousands of bits and potentially configurable to be much bigger.
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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.
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McMullin, B., Baugh, D., Hasegawa, T. (2013). Von Neumann Reproduction: Preliminary Implementation Experience in Coreworlds. 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_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00395-5_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
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