Self-Replicating Mechanical Universal Turing Machine

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a bio-inspired implementation of a self-replicating Turing Machine, showcasing its universality by emulating a known universal Turing machine, thus advancing the understanding of self-replication in computational systems.

Contribution

It introduces a self-replicating FSM and TM using bio-inspired mechanisms, explicitly constructing a universal Turing machine within this framework.

Findings

Successfully implemented a self-replicating FSM and TM

Demonstrated the universality of the system by emulating UTM(5,5)

Showed the potential of bio-inspired mechanisms for universal computation

Abstract

This paper presents the implementation of a self-replicating finite-state machine (FSM) and a self-replicating Turing Machine (TM) using bio-inspired mechanisms. Building on previous work that introduced self-replicating structures capable of sorting, copying, and reading information, this study demonstrates the computational power of these mechanisms by explicitly constructing a functioning FSM and TM. This study demonstrates the universality of the system by emulating the UTM(5,5) of Neary and Woods.