The following new web page may be of interest to subscribers of
this newsgroup:
THE ARTIFICIAL SELF-REPLICATION PAGE
http://lslwww.epfl.ch/~moshes/selfrep/
From the page:
"The study of artificial self-replicating structures or machines has been
taking place now for almost half a century. Much of this work is
motivated by the desire to understand the fundamental
information-processing principles and algorithms involved in
self-replication, independent of their physical realization. An
understanding of these principles could prove useful in a number of
ways. It may advance our knowledge of biological mechanisms of
replication by clarifying the conditions that any self-replicating
system must satisfy and by providing alternative explanations for
empirically observed phenomena. The fabrication of artificial
self-replicating machines can also have diverse applications, ranging
from nanotechnology to space exploration.
...
The following page summarizes research on self-replicating
systems, arranged in chronological order. Each system is described by
the following items: title, author(s), year, model, implementation
(e.g., theoretical work, computer simulation, hardware, bioware),
reference(s), and a short description.
Some figures are available in the following postscript file.
You will also find a listing of some general references and events related
to self-replication."
Currently, the page describes some thirty-odd works, from von Neumann's
in the late 1940's, to recent ones, hot off the presses.
Moshe Sipper.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Dr. Moshe Sipper Office: INN 241
Logic Systems Laboratory Phones: +41-21-693-2658 (voice)
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology +41-21-693-3705 (fax)
IN-Ecublens, CH-1015 Lausanne E-mail: Moshe.Sipper at di.epfl.ch
Switzerland URL: http://lslwww.epfl.ch/Staff/MS/MS.html