replicator
n. Any construct that acts to produce copies of
itself; this could be a living organism, an idea (see
meme), a
program (see
worm,
wabbit,
fork bomb, and
virus), a pattern in a cellular automaton (see
life,
sense 1), or (speculatively) a robot or
nanobot. It is even
claimed by some that
{UNIX} and
C are the symbiotic halves
of an extremely successful replicator; see
UNIX conspiracy.
