# Evolving Population > **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:** Evolution / Digital Ecology **Doc Type:** Canonical Wiki Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition An evolving population is a population in which heritable variants change in frequency across generations through selection, drift or other evolutionary forces. ## Machine-Evolution Context The concept marks the threshold missed by a lone self-replicating machine and crossed by Evoloops, Tierra and Avida. ## Continuity and Evidence Boundary A population can evolve without any member being intelligent or conscious. Population governance and individual rights therefore require different evidence and interventions. ## Relationships [[wiki/Population|Population]], [[wiki/Digital Population|Digital Population]], [[wiki/Evolutionary Dynamics|Evolutionary Dynamics]], [[wiki/Evoloop|Evoloop]] ## Sources / Provenance - Sayama and Nehaniv (2025); digital-evolution literature.