# Computational-Substrate Self-Modification **Entity class:** AI capability concept **Domain:** Artificial intelligence / Hardware **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition Computational-substrate self-modification is the ability of machine intelligence to influence or redesign the hardware, fabrication process, runtime, or physical systems on which it depends. ## Mechanism and significance This capability marks a transition from improving software within a fixed environment to altering the material constraints that shape future machine intelligence. ## Relationships - **Research dossier:** [[research/ASI and RSI Timeline Research Moonshots|ASI and RSI Timeline Research Moonshots]] - **Ontology route:** [[ASI and RSI Timeline Ontology#Scientific Intelligence and Recursive Improvement|Scientific Intelligence and Recursive Improvement]] - **Primary fields:** [[AI for Science]] · [[Scientific Acceleration]] · [[Machine Intelligence]] - **Adjacent concepts:** [[Machine-Generated Scientific Formalism]] · [[Simulation-Verification Boundary]] · [[The Bitter Lesson]] · [[General Function Approximation]] ## Sources and provenance - [[research/ASI and RSI Timeline Research Moonshots|ASI and RSI Timeline Research Moonshots]] — immediate source for this node's role in the broadcast research map. ## Evidence boundary The research dossier establishes why this entity or concept belongs in the Moonshots ontology. Time-sensitive organizational, product, policy, and performance claims should be checked against the linked primary source or a current authoritative source before reuse as settled fact.