Von Neumann, Self-Reproduction and the Constitution of Nanophenomena

As part of a larger study of the immediate antecedents of nanoscience and nanotechnology, I examine, in this paper, the role played by John von Neumann's work on self-reproduction in the constitution of these fields (see especially von Neumann 1951, 1956 and 1966). Von Neumann's proposals have always been char- acterized by an overall unified vision, in which, depending on the domain under consideration, a given logic, specific mathematical theories, probability and the relevant scientific theories were integrated in a clear and well-motivated way. I dis- cuss how this overall vision prompted von Neumann to develop his work on self- reproduction, and how this vision was then transferred to nanoscience and nanotech- nology. In particular, I examine the influence of von Neumann's proposals in the development of Eric Drexler's work in molecular manipulation and computation (Drexler 1992). By understanding the influence that von Neumann's work had in nanotechnology and nanoscience, a different - and perhaps slightly more unified - picture of these fields emerges.

[1]  J. Neumann,et al.  Continuous Geometry. , 1936, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[2]  J. Stamm.  Cerebral Mechanisms in Behavior, The Hixon Symposium , 1952 .

[3]  J. von Neumann,et al.  Probabilistic Logic and the Synthesis of Reliable Organisms from Unreliable Components , 1956 .

[4]  J. Neumann.  The General and Logical Theory of Au-tomata , 1963 .

[5]  John von Neumann,et al.  Theory Of Self Reproducing Automata , 1967 .

[6]  H. Dishkant,et al.  Logic of Quantum Mechanics , 1976 .

[7]  John von Neumann,et al.  Continuous Geometries With a Transition Probability , 1981 .

[8]  J. von Neumann,et al.  The Principles of Large-Scale Computing Machines , 1981, Annals of the History of Computing.

[9]  K. Eric Drexler,et al.  Engines of Creation: the Coming Era of Nanotechnology , 1986 .

[10]  B H Robinson,et al.  The design of a biochip: a self-assembling molecular-scale memory device. , 1987, Protein engineering.

[11]  M. Rédei.  Why John von Neumann did not Like the Hilbert Space formalism of quantum mechanics (and what he liked instead) , 1996 .

[12]  J. Neumann.  Unsolved Problems in Mathematics , 2001 .

[13]  Karl Svozil,et al.  Quantum Logic in Algebraic Approach , 2001 .

[14]  Eric Drexler,et al.  Safe exponential manufacturing , 2004 .

[15]  D. A. Edwards.  The mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics , 1979, Synthese.

[16]  Tom Quirk,et al.  There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom , 2006, Size Really Does Matter.