A device or system that is capable of building copies of itself, providing the appropriate materials are available.
any system that can build copies of itself when provided with the appropriate raw materials and energy.
Any program, such as a worm, a fork bomb, or virus, that acts to produce copies of itself. It is even claimed by some that UNIX and C are the symbiotic halves of an extremely successful replicator.
an entity which is capable, via some process or mechanism, of creating exact (or nearly exact) copies of itself, in the presence of a suitable medium, the appropriate resources, etc
a pattern that can get copies of itself made
Any program that acts to produce copies of itself examples include; a program, a worm, a fork bomb or virus. It is even claimed by some that UNIX and C are the symbiotic halves of an extremely successful replicator.
In discussions of evolution, a replicator is an entity (such as a gene, a meme, or the contents of a computer memory disk) which can get itself copied, including any changes it may have undergone. In a broader sense, a replicator is a system which can make a copy of itself, not necessarily copying any changes it may have undergone. A rabbit's genes are replicators in the first sense (a change in a gene can be inherited); the rabbit itself is a replicator only in the second sense (a notch made in its ear can't be inherited).
A system able to build copies of itself when provided with raw materials and energy.