# Artificial Ecology > **Machine-Evolution Nexus:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution]] places this concept within the history and governance of substrate-independent evolution. **Domain:** Artificial Life / Systems **Doc Type:** Canonical Wiki Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition An artificial ecology is an engineered environment in which computational or synthetic entities interact through resources, spatial structure and one another’s behavior. ## Machine-Evolution Context Tierra and Avida show that ecology is more than a fitness score: entities modify the effective selection environment, generating parasites, defenses, cooperation and shifting niches. ## Continuity and Evidence Boundary Designers remain responsible for the substrate, interfaces and escape boundaries even when population outcomes are not directly scripted. ## Relationships [[wiki/Tierra|Tierra]], [[wiki/Avida|Avida]], [[wiki/Ecosystem Scenario|Ecosystem Scenario]], [[wiki/Resource Constraint|Resource Constraint]] ## Sources / Provenance - Thomas Ray (1991); Avida documentation; Müller, Steels and Szathmáry (2026).