31. The device of claim 18 further comprising: an image capture device for generating the image of the input evolutionary document, the image capture device coupled to the recognition module; and a printer for generating a document, the printer coupled to the document processing module.
18. A device for processing paper-based and electronic documents, the device comprising: a processor; a recognition module stored on a memory and executable by the processor, the recognition module for identifying an identification number associated with an input evolutionary document based at least part on image pattern matching, the input evolutionary document having the identification number and a user input field that includes user input; the recognition module determining a first state for the input evolutionary document based at least in part on a query performed on a document database; the recognition module determining an action path based at least in part on the identification number, the action path including at least one of an action, multiple parallel actions and conditional actions conditioned on at least one of the user input, the first state and data retrieved from the database; the recognition module determining, from the document database, that the action path is to extract the user input field; the recognition module having an input and an output, the input of the recognition module coupled to receive an image of the input evolutionary document; a document processing module stored on the memory and executable by the processor, the document processing module having an input and an output, the document processing module for extracting the user input field from the input evolutionary document, retrieving a form having a first code configured to identify a location on the form for adding the user input field; and an evolutionary document creation module coupled to the recognition module, the evolutionary document creation module for receiving the form having the code configured to identify the location on the form to add the user input field, for determining, based at least in part on the code, the location on the form to add the user input field and for creating a new document by combining the form with the user input field at the location, wherein the recognition module determines a second state for the new document and tracks, from the document database, the state of the new document through its lifecycle from creation to destruction including alerting a user of copying the new document.