self-replication (is only visible once an observer decides how to classify the “self”)

Of course, if water boils in a pot, steam comes out of the pot and also pictured steam comes out of the pictured pot. But what if one insisted on saying that there must also be something boiling in the picture of the pot?

Reference

Wittgenstien, Philisophical Investigation

J.L English, Statistical physics of self-replication

beyond the pale