>A simulation of a self replicating programmable constructor in a two dimensional discrete space supporting about two dozen different types of component part. The machine can create new parts out of nothing as it needs them. See www.srm.org.uk for more details.
>A simulation of a self-replicating programmable constructing machine in a simulation environment that supports moveable parts. The machine obtains parts from its environment and uses them to make a duplicate machine. Visit www.srm.org.uk for more information.
>Self-Replicating Machines: Will Stevens. This site is about work related to self-replicating machines that I carried out for my PhD thesis with the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Open University in the UK between 2004 and 2009. I am interested in physically realistic simulations of self-replicating machines made from simple component parts. On this website you will find an introduction to self-replicating machines, published papers about my research, animations from simulations of self-replicating machines, simulation software that you can download, and links to other work related to self-replication.
For a wildly bold approach to robust computing, with moveable damage-resistant self-repairing parts, check out Dave Ackley's Movable Feast Machine!
>The video "Distributed City Generation" demonstrates how you can program a set of Movable Feast Machine rules that build a self-healing city that fills all available space with urban sprawl, and even repairs itself after disasters!
>A rough video demo of Trent R. Small's procedural city generation dynamics in the Movable Feast Machine simulator. See http://nm8.us/q for more information. Apologies for the poor audio!
Von Neumann's 29 states were custom designed to make it easy to construct passive configurations, similar to the way a 3D printer builds things -- one layer at a time.
You can't do that in Conway's Life, because stable patterns in Life aren't necessarily stable when you add one cell at a time. But you can do the next best thing, which is to design circuitry that's made out of small stable "Spartan" pieces -- and then build the pieces one at a time.
Related to this, there's an equivalent for building passive structures and then activating them. In Life you can build a static "one-glider seed constellation". Hit the stable constellation with a single glider, and a few ticks later you have a working spaceship. Example:
However, there's no reasonable expectation of figuring out how to build a one-glider seed for the Sir Robin knightship any time soon -- the knightship is way too fast, active, and complex. With current techniques a search for such a thing would likely take millions of years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09Q5l47jTy8
Self Replication #2
>A simulation of a self replicating programmable constructor in a two dimensional discrete space supporting about two dozen different types of component part. The machine can create new parts out of nothing as it needs them. See www.srm.org.uk for more details.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBXO_6Jn1fs
Self Replication #3
>A simulation of a self-replicating programmable constructing machine in a simulation environment that supports moveable parts. The machine obtains parts from its environment and uses them to make a duplicate machine. Visit www.srm.org.uk for more information.
http://www.srm.org.uk
>Self-Replicating Machines: Will Stevens. This site is about work related to self-replicating machines that I carried out for my PhD thesis with the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Open University in the UK between 2004 and 2009. I am interested in physically realistic simulations of self-replicating machines made from simple component parts. On this website you will find an introduction to self-replicating machines, published papers about my research, animations from simulations of self-replicating machines, simulation software that you can download, and links to other work related to self-replication.
For a wildly bold approach to robust computing, with moveable damage-resistant self-repairing parts, check out Dave Ackley's Movable Feast Machine!
http://movablefeastmachine.org/
>The Movable Feast Machine is a robust, indefinitely scalable, computing architecture.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14236898
>The video "Distributed City Generation" demonstrates how you can program a set of Movable Feast Machine rules that build a self-healing city that fills all available space with urban sprawl, and even repairs itself after disasters!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkSXERxucPc
>A rough video demo of Trent R. Small's procedural city generation dynamics in the Movable Feast Machine simulator. See http://nm8.us/q for more information. Apologies for the poor audio!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm5k2NUmpIP-4ekppm6Jo...
>Robust-first Computing playlist. Videos introducing and exploring inherently robust computational systems.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm5k2NUmpIP8qwttAS5Ba...
>Movable Feast Machine v2 demos. Presentations and demos of research projects built on the MFMv2 simulator.