Sipper M, Mange D
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Logic Systems Laboratory IN-Ecublens Lausanne CH-1015 CH.
Artif Life. 1998 Summer;4(3):225-7. doi: 10.1162/106454698568558.
In this short article, we argue that von Neumann's quintessential message with respect to self-replicating automata is genotype + ribotype = phenotype. Self-replication occurs in analogy to nature: The description (genotype) written on the input tape is translated via a ribosome (ribotype) so as to create the offspring universal constructor (phenotype).