Re: terminal von Neumann

[Howard Pattee <***>]

>JK: Howard, what is the best reference on von Neumann's ideas in this regard
> for me to read and get up to speed quickly. What I get on the Web is
> just the computation complexity stuff that he seems most known for.

HP: The only references I use are Theory of Self-reproducing Automata, edited and 
completed by Arthur W. Burks, Univ. Illinois Press, 1966, and General and logical theory 
of automata, in the Hixon Symposium, V. 5, No. 9, 1951, titled Cerebral Mechanisms in 
Behavior, Wiley, NY 1951. There are also The Collected Works, A. H. Taub, ed. That 
contain both, but I?ve never seen these.

> JK: It seems you are saying there is no difference between von Neumann and
> Rosen in the important points, is that right? Or do you see some
> differences in their views?

HP: Of course they have different philosophical (metaphysical) views and define some 
words differently, but on this replication issue, the Hertz modeling relation, and the 
incompleteness of physical laws for describing life, I can?t find any of their written 
words that indicate a significant difference.

Howard