# Heritable Information > **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 / Information **Doc Type:** Canonical Wiki Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition Heritable information is organization that can be transmitted into descendants and can influence their resulting traits or behavior. ## Machine-Evolution Context In biology it includes nucleic-acid sequences and inherited regulatory structure; in digital evolution it can be executable instruction sequences or reproducible cellular states. ## Continuity and Evidence Boundary Persistence, copying and meaning depend on an interpreter and environment. A bit pattern alone is not an organism, a functioning mind or a continuity proof. ## Relationships [[wiki/Information Inheritance|Information Inheritance]], [[wiki/Genome|Genome]], [[wiki/Description Copier|Description Copier]], [[wiki/Hot Interpreter and Cold Archive|Hot Interpreter and Cold Archive]] ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts <!-- BEGIN SIMPLE REMINDER SEED 2026-09-11 --> > "Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin." > **— John von Neumann**, *Various Techniques Used in Connection with Random Digits (1951)* *Verification Status: Unverified — exact wording/source has not yet been independently confirmed against a primary source; source clue: Various Techniques Used in Connection with Random Digits (1951).* [[reminders/unverified/In a State of Sin by John von Neumann|In a State of Sin by John von Neumann]] > "The software of life is not all in the genome." > **— Michael Levin**, *Bioelectricity and morphogenesis talks, wording candidate* *Verification Status: Unverified — exact wording/source has not yet been independently confirmed against a primary source; source clue: Bioelectricity and morphogenesis talks, wording candidate.* [[reminders/unverified/Life’s Software Is Bigger Than the Genome by Michael Levin|Life’s Software Is Bigger Than the Genome by Michael Levin]] > "The only remedy seems to be the rejuvenating return to the source." > **— John von Neumann**, *The Mathematician (1947), excerpt candidate* *Verification Status: Unverified — exact wording/source has not yet been independently confirmed against a primary source; source clue: The Mathematician (1947), excerpt candidate.* [[reminders/unverified/When Abstraction Fails, Return to Reality by John von Neumann|When Abstraction Fails, Return to Reality by John von Neumann]] <!-- END SIMPLE REMINDER SEED 2026-09-11 --> > “In short, I have changed my mind about how people come literally to embody the social world around them. I once thought that we internalized cultural factors by forming memories, acquiring language, or bearing emotional and physical marks (of poverty, of conquest). I thought that this was the limit of the ways in which our bodies were shaped by our social environment. In particular, I thought that our genes were historically immutable, and that it was not possible to imagine a conversation between culture and genetics. I thought that we as a species evolved over time frames far too long to be influenced by human actions.” > **— Nicholas A. Christakis**, *2008, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT? WHY?”* [[reminders/Evolution/Culture Can Become Embodied in Human Biology by Nicholas A. Christakis|Culture Can Become Embodied in Human Biology by Nicholas A. Christakis]] ## Sources / Provenance - John Maynard Smith, “The Concept of Information in Biology”; von Neumann (1966).