Reggia J A, Lohn J D, Chou H H
University of Maryland Department of Computer Science and Institute for Advanced Computer Studies AV Williams Bldg College Park MD 20742 USA.
Artif Life. 1998 Summer;4(3):283-302. doi: 10.1162/106454698568594.
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 a 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. We view past research 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. We discuss our recent studies in the latter category showing that self-replicating structures can emerge from nonreplicating components, and that genetic algorithms can be applied to program automatically simple but arbitrary structures to replicate. We also describe recent work in which self-replicating structures are successfully programmed to do useful problem solving as they replicate. We conclude by identifying some implications and important research directions for the future.
自20世纪50年代冯·诺依曼的开创性工作以来，计算机科学家及其他人员一直在研究支持自我复制系统所需的算法。这项工作大多集中在嵌入二维细胞空间的抽象逻辑机器（自动机）上。开展这项研究的动机在于理解自我复制背后的基本信息处理原理、可编程自我复制机器的潜在长期应用，以及深入了解生物复制和生命起源的可能性。我们认为过去的研究主要有三个方向：早期以图灵机为模型的复杂通用计算机构造器、定性上更简单的自我复制循环，以及将自我复制视为一种涌现现象的研究努力。我们讨论了我们在后者这一类别中的近期研究，这些研究表明自我复制结构可以从非复制组件中涌现出来，并且遗传算法可以应用于自动编程简单但任意的结构以进行复制。我们还描述了近期的工作，其中自我复制结构在复制时被成功编程以解决有用的问题。我们通过确定一些未来的影响和重要研究方向来得出结论。
