How did Post machines influence later computer program designs?

In the context of automata theory, Post machines—proposed by the mathematician E.L. Post in 1936—served as essential prototypes for the program schemes developed a decade later by John von Neumann and his associates.1

These machines influenced computer design by establishing a foundational model for how an automaton could execute a sequence of instructions to perform computations. A Post machine operates by following a finite sequence of instructions, such as moving a tape, printing symbols, or branching to different steps based on the state of the tape. This logical structure provided a framework for the stored-program concept, which is central to modern computing. By demonstrating that such machines could compute any partial recursive function, Post machines helped validate the theoretical possibility of general-purpose, programmable computers.12