it's really hard to explain it if you don't understand what the gene-centric view of evolution is and what an extended phenotype is but i will do my best.  basically in evolution the concept of the extended phenotype is the idea that your phenotype, which is the body your genes created, which is tasked with surviving and reproducing therefore replicating those genes, that phenotype doesn't stop at boundaries of your body exactly. so for example the way beaver's build dams, or birds build nests, or spiders build webs. those structures are coded in those creatures dna as much as their legs and eyeballs. they are essential for their survival and reproduction. they are an extension of the body or phenotype so to speak.  jf proposes the idea of a revolutionary phenotype. a structure that at first functions as this extension of a replicators(creatures) body but at some point stages a revolution against its "master" and it becomes the replicator. jf uses this to explain how life transitioned from being rna-based to dna-based. at some point on earth all life was rna based and then dna took over and now rna is still present but it functions to help dna. jf proposes a mechanism by which this happens and he proposes a generalized theory that explains how all replicators subject to evolutionary pressures eventually get "revolutionized" by an extension of their phenotype under certain conditions. he outline those conditions for specific reasons which make sense if you understand information theory and evolution. at least they make sense to me and i have a background in biophysics.  sorry i just typed this no read-through i have a baby in the other room dude. i hope you gleamed something out of this. it's not easy to grasp it took me a while and i need to re-read. i have read/heard other people mention similar ideas since however so maybe jf wasn't the first but he certainly seems super early and i believe he independently arrived at this since doing his phd work
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