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.
Clones are simulacra.
God is in the mechanical. The simulacrum is in the chemistry. He is currently at work co-editing a reader on the intersection of religion and popular culture. Peter is also a collector of American detritus from the '40s and '50s.