Genes are not the only thing that can copy themselves. Computer virus, RNA, protein virus (prion), and chain mails, they all can.
The idea of non-gene replicators is not new. Richard Dawkins proposed memes in The Selfish Gene (1976), and Graham Cairns‑Smith proposed clay-genes (clenes?) in The origin of life and the nature of the primitive gene (1966). Genes and memes are getting all the popularities, but clenes aren't, so I'll summarize clene theory. A detailed explanation is here.
Overview of clenes and genes
First we check the 1966 paper's abstract:Life on earth evolved through natural selection from inorganic crystals.
During the formation of a crystal, certain kinds of lattice imperfections usually replicate as a necessary part of the crystallization process.
... the primitive genographs were patterns of substitutions in colloidal clay crystallites. (The theoretical information density in such a crystallite is comparable to that in DNA.)... A gradual “take-over” of the control machinery by organic macromolecules—a genetic metamorphosis—is then considered to have occurred.
