How did John von Neumann’s self-reproducing machine model anticipate ideas in genetics?

John von Neumann’s work on self-reproducing machines, developed through an abstract model known as cellular automata, anticipated fundamental principles in genetics.

He demonstrated that for a machine to reproduce itself, it must utilize a "genetic" code that serves two distinct functions. First, the machine interprets this code as a set of instructions to construct a new machine. Second, it treats the code as data to be copied, ensuring that the new, "fertile" machine possesses the same instructions necessary for its own future replication.1

This conceptual framework mirrors the biological reality of cells, which must duplicate their own internal blueprints—the instructions for heredity—before division so that each daughter cell retains the information required to function and replicate. By identifying the necessity of a dual-purpose code for self-replication, von Neumann provided a theoretical bridge between mechanical design and the biological mechanisms of life.21