User:William R. Buckley

My earliest work in self-replicating systems began with Apple-II computers. Together with James R. Hauser (then a physics professor at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo), I developed the Apple Worm, and assisted with the development of Type Attack. The Apple Worm work is published in several forums, to include Scientific American, March, 1985, Call_A.P.P.L.E. Magazine, November, 1986, and in Japan, ASCII Magazine, 13(3) 265-271. The Scientific American publication here mentioned, showing a relation between my work on self-replicating programs and the work of A. K. Dewdney, called Core War. In 1987, I became the second director of the International Core Wars Society, a position I held until late 1992.

Since that time, I have completed a design for a self-replicator that is strictly in keeping with the specifications of von Neumann (29 states). The only competitive work comes from Nobili and Pesavento, with their work either relying upon a modification to the rule set of von Neumann (their 32state design), or failing to satisfy all requirements for machine self-replication (their 29-state design). I have since this time developed a computational model of machine ontogeny, so as to satisfy the laments of the late evolutionary biologist John Maynard-Smith. I have also founded the California Evolution Institute to foster this work.

I have been enjoying a collaborative effort with Adam P. Goucher, and our effort has been to demonstrate self-replication for the partial constructor. Adam has nearly prepared a tape suitable for demonstration of an addition to the configuration of the partial constructor; it has just one minor error in structure. The partial constructor has also been forwarded for review by the journal Artificial Life, as well as two prominent researchers into machine self-replication: Carlos Gershenson and Melanie Mitchell. This project has been fourteen years in the making; demonstration of machine self-replication by the means of partial construction is in the offing.

<my initials - wrb> at <calevinst.org>

HBHS This user attends or attended Huntington Beach High School
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OCC This user attends or attended
Orange Coast College




GWC This user attends or attended
Golden West College




Cal Poly This user attends or attended California Polytechnic State University




CSUF This user attends or attended California State University, Fullerton




UM This user attends or attended University of Manitoba