Von Neumann Universal Constructor - Wikipedia - Operating System  ## Metadata - Author: **Operating System** - Full Title: Von Neumann Universal Constructor - Wikipedia - Category: #articles - URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_universal_constructor ## Highlights - John von Neumann's universal constructor is a self-replicating machine in a cellular automaton (CA) environment - Von Neumann's goal, as specified in his lectures at the University of Illinois in 1949,[2] was to design a machine whose complexity could grow automatically akin to biological organisms under natural selection. He asked what is the threshold of complexity that must be crossed for machines to be able to evolve.[4] His answer was to specify an abstract machine which, when run, would replicate itself. In his design, the self-replicating machine consists of three parts: a "description" of ('blueprint' or program for) itself, a universal constructor mechanism that can read any description and construct the machine (sans description) encoded in that description, and a universal copy machine that can make copies of any description. After the universal constructor has been used to construct a new machine encoded in the description, the copy machine is used to create a copy of that description, and this copy is passed on to the new machine, resulting in a working replication of the original machine that can keep on reproducing