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.