replicator

from Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)

replicator
 n.

   Any construct that acts to produce copies of itself; this could be a
   living organism, an idea (see {meme}), a program (see {quine}, {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}.

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

replicator

   Any construct that acts to produce copies of itself; this
   could be a living organism, an idea (see {meme}), a program
   (see {quine}, {worm}, {wabbit}, {fork bomb}, and {virus}), a
   pattern in a {cellular automaton} (see {life}), 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}.

   [{Jargon File}]

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