# Genotype > **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 / Heredity **Doc Type:** Canonical Wiki Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition A genotype is the inherited genetic or digital description associated with an organism or lineage. ## Nexus Context In Avida and Tierra it is an executable instruction sequence; its phenotype includes behavior produced when the sequence runs in its environment. ## Evidence Boundary The genotype is not the whole organism or subject. Identical genotypes can yield different outcomes across environments and histories. ## Developmental Context [[wiki/Pantheon S1E5 — Zero Daze|Zero Daze]] demonstrates why genotype cannot be treated as a person specification. Even an SCNT clone inherits nuclear DNA from the donor while receiving mitochondrial DNA from the oocyte donor; development introduces epigenetic, gestational, physiological and stochastic variation. Caspian's program exists precisely because source genome alone is insufficient. Logorhythms therefore attempts [[wiki/Genotype–Environment Reconstruction|Genotype–Environment Reconstruction]]. The episode is a narrative illustration of genotype as **initial condition rather than destiny**. ## Relationships [[wiki/Genome|Genome]], [[wiki/Genotype-Phenotype Distinction|Genotype-Phenotype Distinction]], [[wiki/Genotype–Environment Reconstruction|Genotype–Environment Reconstruction]], [[wiki/Digital Organism|Digital Organism]], [[wiki/Embodied Cognition|Embodied Cognition]] ## Sources / Provenance - Johannsen’s terminology; modern genetics and digital-evolution usage.