A new self-reproducing cellular automaton capable of construction and computation

Abstract

We present a new self-reproducing cellular automaton capable of construction and computation beyond self-reproduction. Our automaton makes use of some of the concepts developed by Langton for his self-reproducing automaton, but provides the added advantage of being able to perform independent constructional and computational tasks alongside self-reproduction. Our automaton is capable, like Langton's automaton and with comparable complexity, of simple self-replication, but it also provides (at the cost, naturally, of increased complexity) the option of attaching to the automaton an executable program which will be duplicated and executed in each of the copies of the automaton. After describing in some detail the self-reproduction mechanism of our automaton, we provide a non-trivial example of its constructional capabilities.