{
  "abstract": "Classically, biological reproduction is depicted as the building of a new organism from replicated genomic instructions, which then act as a representation of the organism. The corresponding theoretical model is von Neumann’s self-reproducing machine, which relies on a universal constructor that can build any machine (in particular itself) from instructions, shielded from the variable structure of the system. Biological reproduction does not work in this way, because a living organism cannot in fact build any other organism, and because the constructing processes are not isolated from the constructed structure. I propose instead that invariant reproduction is not, in fact, an inherent property of living systems. Rather, invariant reproduction must be understood as a fixed-point phenomenon. Generically, the parent produces a new system with a different structure. As this production process is iterated over generations, the sequence of produced systems may converge to a fixed point, at which point a system produces an identical system. I describe a number of biological observations in ciliates that support the idea that invariant reproduction is indeed not generic but rather a dynamical convergence phenomenon, among other possibilities: structural alterations may result in convergence to the typical form over a few generations, or to an alternative fixed point (a different self-reproducing organism with the same genome), or to a diverging sequence of descendants. In this view, the genome is a transmissible constraint on development, not a representation of the organism. I suggest that this dynamical view offers a more coherent perspective on biological reproduction than von Neumann’s computational framework.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 1,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Romain Brette"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0dqnfkwcw6fky.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": null,
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "0dqnfkwcw6fky",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://hal.science/hal-05491732v4",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "hal",
      "0.sdv"
    ],
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      "hal",
      "1.sdv.bibs"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://hal.science/hal-05491732/document",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-29",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0dqnfkwcw6fky.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:43Z",
      "native_id": "hal-05491732",
      "source": "hal",
      "url": "https://hal.science/hal-05491732v4"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "hal:1.sdv.bibs",
      "subfield": "bioinformatics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Invariant reproduction as a fixed-point phenomenon",
  "title_text": "Invariant reproduction as a fixed-point phenomenon",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:43Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0dqnfkwcw6fky",
  "venue": "HAL",
  "versions": []
}