Document: Von Neumann, Genetic Relativism and Evolvability

next Introduction
up
previous


The Von Neumann Self-reproducing Architecture,
Genetic Relativism and Evolvability

Barry McMullin
http://www.eeng.dcu.ie/~mcmullin/

©2000

Presented at the Evolvability Workshop at
Artificial Life VII
August 1-6, 2000, Portland, Oregon.

Dublin City University
Research Institute for Networks and Communications Engineering
Artificial Life Laboratory
Technical Report Number: bmcm-2000-02


Abstract:

Within any suitable framework of primitive automaton components (CA or otherwise) the von Neumann architecture for self-reproduction can generally give rise to (an infinity of) infinite sets of self-reproducing automata. The automata within any single such set are characterised as sharing a particular ``constructing'' or ``decoding'' subsystem (a ``general constructive automaton''). This means that all the automata within such a set share the same formal ``genetic language''; this, in turn, means that they are connected by a network of potential mutations. The latter was an important and significant finding by von Neumann, as it established that some, at least, of the conditions for the evolutionary growth of automaton complexity can be met in such mechanistic frameworks, within any single one of these von Neumann sets of self-reproducers (McMullin, 2000). This note explores a further elaboration of these results, based on the possibility of mutational pathways between (as opposed to within) von Neumann sets; i.e., pathways between automata implementing different genetic languages. Von Neumann himself considered this issue briefly, but apparently discounted it (von Neumann, 1949, p. 86). By contrast, I argue that it may be deeply significant for both natural and artificial evolutionary systems.



 

next Introduction
up
previous

Document: Von Neumann, Genetic Relativism and Evolvability

Copyright © 2000 All Rights Reserved.
Timestamp: 2000-08-16

Barry.McMullin@dcu.ie