# Digital 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:** Artificial Life / Evolution **Doc Type:** Canonical Wiki Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition Digital evolution is evolutionary change among heritable computational entities or, in a broader usage, descent and selection among digital technologies. ## Nexus Context The canonical strong cases are Barricelli’s populations, Evoloops, Tierra and Avida. Blockchain forks belong to the broader lineage sense unless a genuine reproducing population and internal variation process exist. ## Evidence Boundary Digital evolution establishes substrate-independent selection dynamics, not digital consciousness, life or personhood by itself. ## Relationships [[wiki/Digital Darwinism|Digital Darwinism]], [[wiki/Digital Organism|Digital Organism]], [[wiki/Artificial Life|Artificial Life]], [[wiki/Evolvable AI|Evolvable AI]] - **Edge source route:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] connects this topic to exact Annual Question passages promoted into the Simple Reminders archive. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts <!-- BEGIN SIMPLE REMINDER SEED 2026-09-11 --> > "Cells are problem-solving agents." > **— Michael Levin**, *Basal-cognition talks, recurring formulation candidate* *Verification Status: Unverified — exact wording/source has not yet been independently confirmed against a primary source; source clue: Basal-cognition talks, recurring formulation candidate.* [[reminders/unverified/Cells Are Problem-Solving Agents by Michael Levin|Cells Are Problem-Solving Agents by Michael Levin]] > "Digital objects can be real objects." > **— David Chalmers**, *Reality+ (2022), central thesis candidate* *Verification Status: Unverified — exact wording/source has not yet been independently confirmed against a primary source; source clue: Reality+ (2022), central thesis candidate.* [[reminders/unverified/Digital Objects Can Be Real Objects by David Chalmers|Digital Objects Can Be Real Objects by David Chalmers]] > "Intelligence is the competency of a system to reach the same goal by different means." > **— Michael Levin**, *Morphogenesis and basal-cognition talks, wording candidate* *Verification Status: Unverified — exact wording/source has not yet been independently confirmed against a primary source; source clue: Morphogenesis and basal-cognition talks, wording candidate.* [[reminders/unverified/Intelligence as Goal-Seeking Competence by Michael Levin|Intelligence as Goal-Seeking Competence by Michael Levin]] > "Competence without comprehension is the way of life of the biosphere." > **— Daniel Dennett**, *From Bacteria to Bach and Back (2017), wording candidate* *Verification Status: Unverified — exact wording/source has not yet been independently confirmed against a primary source; source clue: From Bacteria to Bach and Back (2017), wording candidate.* [[reminders/unverified/Life Can Be Competent Without Understanding by Daniel Dennett|Life Can Be Competent Without Understanding by Daniel Dennett]] > "Life did not take over the globe by combat, but by networking." > **— Lynn Margulis**, *Microcosmos / symbiosis writings, widely attributed* *Verification Status: Unverified — exact wording/source has not yet been independently confirmed against a primary source; source clue: Microcosmos / symbiosis writings, widely attributed.* [[reminders/unverified/Life Conquered Earth by Networking, Not Combat by Lynn Margulis|Life Conquered Earth by Networking, Not Combat by Lynn Margulis]] <!-- END SIMPLE REMINDER SEED 2026-09-11 --> > "Artificial intelligences, whether confined to desktop boxes and robots or distributed in cyber space, have been created by replicator power just as our own intelligence was created by replicator power. They are evolving far faster than we did and may yet give rise to further even faster replicators. That power will not stop because we want it to. And its products will certainly not be impressed by our claims to be in control or to have designed the machinery on which they thrive. That intelligence will continue to evolve, and the sooner we accept the idea of replicator power the more realistic we are likely to be about the future of our life with intelligent machines." > **— Susan Blackmore**, *2017, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Term or Concept Ought to Be More Widely Known?”* [[reminders/Evolution/Intelligent Machines Are the Next Replicators by Susan Blackmore|Intelligent Machines Are the Next Replicators by Susan Blackmore]] > "As we invent and expand worlds of 1s and 0s the primary criteria for success and viral replication is whether we can breathe life into their virtual realities. Be this a direct reflection of daily life, a la Facebook, multi player massive worlds, or a replicating, self reinforcing network reproductive logic. The digital world accelerates expansion, survival, virtual life through mutant hyper growth. It becomes a fast forward caricature of what we have strived to build throughout centuries of breeding and agricultural practices, of building layer upon layer of civilizations in great cities." > **— Juan Enriquez**, *2012, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Your Favorite Deep, Elegant, or Beautiful Explanation?”* [[reminders/Digital Life/Digital Worlds Accelerate the Evolution of Virtual Life by Juan Enriquez|Digital Worlds Accelerate the Evolution of Virtual Life by Juan Enriquez]] > “The earliest computing, in the first computer store in the world, Dick Heyser in Santa Monica, had me try something that I had read in SciAm by Martin Gardner: Conway's 'Game of Life'. The literal incarnation of the initial premise: Simplicity reduced to that YinYang: a cell is On or Off, black or white. But there is one more thing added here now: iteration. With just four rules each cell is said to live or die and in each cycle the pattern changes, iteratively. From dead dots on paper, and static pixels on phospor, it sprang to—life! Not only patterns, but blinkers, gliders, even glider guns, heck glider gun canons! Indeed, it is now seen as a true Turing-complete machine. Artificial Life. Needless to say: very deep.” > **— Kai Krause**, *2012, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Your Favorite Deep, Elegant, Or Beautiful Explanation?”* [[reminders/Digital Life/Simple Rules Can Generate Artificial Life by Kai Krause|Simple Rules Can Generate Artificial Life by Kai Krause]] > “We have only set the first steps towards building artificial subjects. Just as our current artificial objects are vastly more complex than the first wheel or bow and arrow, our artificial subjects will grow more complex, powerful, and interesting over the centuries. But already we can see a glimmer of what lies ahead: our first attempts to build autonomous agents has taught us new concepts. As a result, we are now beginning to explore self-organizing ecological, economic, or social systems; areas of study where thing-like metaphors hopelessly fail.” > **— Piet Hut**, *1999, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVENTION IN THE PAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS?”* [[reminders/Machine Succession/Artificial Subjects Will Grow More Powerful and Complex by Piet Hut|Artificial Subjects Will Grow More Powerful and Complex by Piet Hut]] > “All around us the techno-memes are proliferating, and gearing up to take control; not that they realise it; they are just selfish replicators doing what selfish replicators do—getting copied whenever and wherever they can, regardless of the consequences. In this case they are using us human meme machines as their first stage copying machinery, until something better comes along. Artificial meme machines are improving all the time, and the step that will change everything is when these machines become self-replicating. Then they will no longer need us. Whether we live or die, or whether the planet is habitable for us or not, will be of no consequence for their further evolution.” > **— Susan Blackmore**, *2009, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING?”* [[reminders/Machine Succession/Self-Replicating Artificial Meme Machines Would No Longer Need Us by Susan Blackmore|Self-Replicating Artificial Meme Machines Would No Longer Need Us by Susan Blackmore]] > “The problem with all this is that we cannot excel our way out of modern problems. Within the same century, we have unlocked the twin nuclei of both cell and atom and created the conditions for synthetic biological and even digital life with computer programs that can spawn with both descent and variation on which selection can now act. We are in genuinely novel territory which we have little reason to think we can control; only the excellent would compare these recent achievements to harmless variations on the invention of the compass or steam engine. So surviving our newfound god-like powers will require modes that lie well outside expertise, excellence, and mastery.” > **— Eric R. Weinstein**, *2013, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT *SHOULD* WE BE WORRIED ABOUT?”* [[reminders/Existential Risk/Synthetic Biological and Digital Life Put Humanity in Genuinely Novel Territory by Eric R. Weinstein|Synthetic Biological and Digital Life Put Humanity in Genuinely Novel Territory by Eric R. Weinstein]] > “First, your home is a constant, while the Net is a place you go; then the Net becomes a constant while your home is a place you go.” > **— Bruce Sterling**, *2004, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT'S YOUR LAW?”* [[reminders/Digital Life/The Net May Become the Constant While Home Becomes the Place You Go by Bruce Sterling|The Net May Become the Constant While Home Becomes the Place You Go by Bruce Sterling]] > “The universe is a quantum computer: life, sex, the brain, and human society all arise out of the ability of the universe to process information at the level of atoms, photons and elementary particles.” > **— Seth Lloyd**, *2004, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT'S YOUR LAW?”* [[reminders/Information/The Universe Is a Quantum Computer by Seth Lloyd|The Universe Is a Quantum Computer by Seth Lloyd]] > “As evidence that we really do not understand what it takes for something to be alive, we have not been able to build machines that are alive.” > **— Rodney A. Brooks**, *2001, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT QUESTIONS HAVE DISAPPEARED?”* [[reminders/Digital Life/We Cannot Build Life Because We Cannot Define It by Rodney A. Brooks|We Cannot Build Life Because We Cannot Define It by Rodney A. Brooks]] > “We now live in a digital world in which copying is not only effortless, non-degenerative and effectively free but is actually intrinsic to digital technology. What is a computer, after all, but a copying machine?” > **— John Naughton**, *2013, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT *SHOULD* WE BE WORRIED ABOUT?”* [[reminders/Information/What Is a Computer but a Copying Machine by John Naughton|What Is a Computer but a Copying Machine by John Naughton]] ## Sources / Provenance - Avida, Tierra, Evoloops and IAS Barricelli literature.