Abstract

Imagine a planet on which a self-replicating molecule appears, is copied with variation and selection, and evolves to build itself living creatures that protect and propagate it; those creatures eventually spread all over the planet, changing its atmosphere and environment as they do so. Now imagine that one of those creatures begins to copy behaviours from one individual to another, and this information gets copied with variation and selection. In other words, a second kind of replicator emerges. This transforms the original creatures to make them better at protecting and propagating it, and goes on to build cultural objects that eventually spread all over the planet, changing its atmosphere and environment all over again.