Reproduction is the process of creating a copy of something. In the context of art and images, it means reproducing a work of art through printing or another copying method. In biology, it’s the process by which organisms create others like themselves. It’s worth noting that reproduction produces an object resembling the original but not identical to it. Reproductions of paintings can differ from the original in color rendering, size, and material quality. Biological offspring have genetic differences from their parents.
Replication is exact reproduction, the creation of an identical copy. In molecular biology, it’s the process of producing two identical copies of DNA from a single original DNA molecule. In philosophy of mind and science fiction, the term is often used to describe the hypothetical copying of a person’s personality, consciousness, or mind.
The difference between replication and copying (reproduction): replication produces an identical duplicate of the original at every level, down to the atomic or informational level, whereas a copy (reproduction) is an approximate rendering with inevitable differences. In the philosophical context of the novel, the replication of a personality implies not simply the creation of a similar double, but the actual existence of one and the same person in several instances at once, with each «replica» remaining the original. This is fundamentally different from the idea of a «copy,» which implies the creation of a new, separate being, however closely it may resemble the original.