ABSTRACT
Here we review chemical and biological replicators that were either
engineered (artificially) or evolved (either naturally or artificially).
They are automata even though they need not be electromechanical
machines or computer programs. Ga´nti has described the class of
fluid automata [Ga´nti (2003b)] into which almost (but perhaps not)
all biological replicators fall. Replicators are very special because
they are the foundation of evolution by natural selection.