# The Representation Eclipses the Thing It Represents by W. Daniel Hillis > “The new medium (which begins as a representation of the old medium) eclipses the old. The prize becomes more important than the achievement. The genes become more important than the organism.” > **— W. Daniel Hillis**, *2004, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT'S YOUR LAW?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Hillis' Law](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/10167) — the official response page preserves this exact, continuous passage and its surrounding argument. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2004 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2004 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first record for the response object and all canonical reminder links derived from it. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/Modern Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s|AI in the 1970s]] - **Article:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism]] - **Article:** [[articles/Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks and the Allen Institute|Cortical Networks]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Cybernetics|Cybernetics]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Cybernetics|Cybernetics]] - [[wiki/Information Theory|Information Theory]] - [[wiki/Knowledge Representation|Knowledge Representation]] - [[wiki/Category Capture|Category Capture]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “The new medium (which begins as a representation of the old medium) eclipses the old. The prize becomes more important than the achievement. The genes become more important than the organism.” — W. Daniel Hillis, 2004, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT'S YOUR LAW?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-daniel-hillis-representation-eclipses-original ```