I do not watch the automaton to understand the bird. But I might pray to the simulacrum to try and understand the real. The latter is false. It is sacrilege. Tiny Chinese mechanical birds are called automata.
Cellular automata are artificial life forms.
Simulacra made of stucco are not automata even though a response to them might be automatic. Automata capture the real and let it go, like a small bird caught in your hand. Production is necessary. We may even produce ourselves. We may even watch as there are no more birds, but tiny mechanical ones kept under jars or in wonder chambers.