Reflexivity, reproduction, and evolution: from von Neumann to Powers.(John von Neumann's Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata)(Richard Powers's novel, Galatea 2.2.)

From: Mosaic (Winnipeg) | Date: June 1, 2006| Author: Wald, Carol Ann | Copyright information

This essay explores reflexivity, reproduction, and evolutionary discourse in John von Neumann's "Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata" and, using Maturana and Varela's notion of autopoiesis, connects cybernetic conceptions of reflexivity to Richard Powers's novel, Galatea 2.2. In this novel, it is argued, the reflexive dynamics of cognitive complexity become entangled with anxieties about parenting and evolutionary progress.

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Men create because they ...

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