# Cultural Evolution > **Machine-Evolution Nexus:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution]] places this node within the history and governance of substrate-independent evolution. **Domain:** Evolution / Culture / Information **Doc Type:** Canonical Wiki Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition Cultural evolution studies changes in socially transmitted beliefs, practices, institutions and technologies across populations. ## Nexus Context Blockchain communities transmit norms, fork rules and governance commitments, producing branching cultural and technical lineages even when strict genetic-style reproduction is absent. ## Evidence Boundary Cultural evolution can be Darwinian in some models but often includes guided invention, strategic adoption and horizontal transfer. Mechanisms must be stated rather than assumed. ## Relationships [[wiki/Cultural Transmission|Cultural Transmission]], [[wiki/Technological Evolution|Technological Evolution]], [[wiki/Branching Descent|Branching Descent]], [[wiki/Gene-Culture Coevolution|Gene-Culture Coevolution]] ## Sources / Provenance - Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman; Boyd and Richerson.