REPLICATOR
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2839 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Human sciences |
Any element “able to create copies of itself” (R. DAWKINS, 1992, p.16).
DAWKINS writes: “Think of the replicator as a mould or template” (Ibid) and he proposes the following construction rules:
- there is an abundance of diverse types of building blocks around the replicator
- each building block may have an affinity for its own kind, — or possibly for some other specific kind — situated somewhere in the replicator
As a result, they may be able to attach themselves “in a sequence which mimics that of the replicator itself” (p.17).
Crystals are replicators.
Replication also exists, in different forms, in living systems: DNA — amoebas — cells. It would be interesting to study the public opinion phenomenon from the same viewpoint. The Swiss engraver A. BÖCKLIN produced in the 19th Century a print suggesting precisely this.
Replicators can be modeled as automata . For the time being, such automata are still computer models , whose concept developped out of von NEUMANN's model of cellular automaton known as “universal constructor”. The state of the art has been described recently by M. SIPPER & J.A. REGGIA (2001)
The possibility to create material self replicating automata seems to become real and is related to the so-called Artificial Life
For an interesting comparison between memes and genes, both considered as replicators, see S. BLACKMORE (2000, p. 56-8)
See also
Fitness function, Paralled Distributing Processing, Synaptic Weights