Minimizing Complexity in Cellular Automata Models of Self-Replication

Understanding self-replication from an information processing perspective is important because, amongother things, it can shed light on molecular mechanismsof biological reproduction and on prebiotic chemical evolution. Intuition, biological knowledge, and early computational models of self-replication all suggestedthat self-replication is an inherently complex process. In this paper we describe recent computational studies that challenge this viewpoint. Wesummarize our recent workwith cellular automata models of simple yet non-trivial self-replicating structures called unsheathed loops. For example, one unsheathed loop consists of only six componentsand requires only 20 rules to specify the local intercomponent interactions needed to bring about replication. The implication of this workis that, whenviewedas an emergent property of numerous local, concurrent interactions between components,self-replicating systems can be substantially simpler than is generally recognized.1 Developingm...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1993
• Where: ISMB
• Authors: James A. Reggia, Hui-Hsien Chou, Steven L. Armentrout, Yun Peng
• Keywords: Computational Biology, Computational Models, ISMB 1993, Non-trivial Self-replicating Structures, Self-replicating