John von Neumann and Self-Reproducing Cellular Automata
Roland Vollmar
In the early period of Computer Science, John von Neumann influenced his emergent science not only by his seminal paper on computers but also by the introduction of cellular automata in connection with self-reproduction. In this article his different approaches will be described and the origins of this subject will be discussed in some detail. Modifications of self-reproducing cellular automata will be presented. Moreover some speculations connected with this notion will be sketched.