Abstract
In a recent issue of this journal Robert C. Newman presented a very interesting account of self-reproduction in cellular automata. He was concerned particularly with a simple self-reproduction model that was developed by Christopher Langton. Newman argues that Langton device is at or near the minimum complexity for self-reproduction of any meaningful form. He then goes on to argue that even for this very simplistic model of life, in the most favorable conditions, the chances of such a device occurring by chance are vanishingly small. Hence, since life itself is even more complicated, this amounts to very strong evidence that life is designed. In this paper, we present a self-reproducing automaton that shares the basic features of Langton's model but is much simpler.