TAURUS: Towards an Audacious Universal Constructor

通用构造器(UC)由冯·纽曼于1948年首次提出，它是一种原则上可以建造任何其他机器的机器，包括其自身的副本。自从它被首次提出以来，人们已经进行了许多尝试来开发一种UC的原型，这种原型可以自我复制，同时还可以构建对其设计者有用的东西。到目前为止展示的部分原型都不是真正的通用构造器，因为它们在(A)自我复制能力和(B)它们实际可以作为有用的商品产出制造的方面都受到严重限制。在这笔赠款中，我提出了一条通过解决上述(A)和(B)正面限制来实现冯·纽曼愿景的创新途径。为了做到这一点，我将战略性地整合合成生物学的最新进展，从中我们可以免费获得细胞自我复制-解决限制(A)-以及丰富的基于生化细胞的纳米实验室，从中可以制造各种潜在的有用商品。因此，金牛座提供了一条通向真正通用构建器的第一个实现的明确路线。

A universal constructor (UC) , first proposed by von Newman in 1948, is a machine that can -in principle- build any other machine, including copies of itself. Since it was first proposed, many attempts have been made to develop a prototype of a UC that could self-replicate while simultaneously building something useful toits designers. None of the partial prototypes demonstrated so far are true Universal Constructors because they are severely limited on both (a) their ability to self-replicate and (b) on what they can actually manufacture as useful commodity outputs. In this grant I propose an innovative route to realise von Newman's vision by tackling heads-on limitations (a) & (b) mentioned above. To do this, I will strategically integrate recent advances in Synthetic Biology from which we can obtain for free both cellular self-replication -tackling limitation (a)- and a rich biochemical cell-based nanolaboratory from which one could manufacture a large variety of potentially useful commodities.Thus, TAURUS offers a clear route towards the first implementation of a true universal constructor.