# Mutational Robustness > **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 / Resilience **Doc Type:** Canonical Wiki Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition Mutational robustness is the capacity of an inherited organization to retain function despite mutations. ## Nexus Context In Avida, robust genotype neighborhoods can outperform a sharper immediate optimum under high mutation pressure. Robustness therefore belongs to lineage performance, not merely individual performance. ## Evidence Boundary Robustness can reduce sensitivity to damaging variation while also altering access to novelty; it is related to but not identical with evolvability. ## Relationships [[wiki/Survival of the Flattest|Survival of the Flattest]], [[wiki/Evolvability|Evolvability]], [[wiki/Resilience|Resilience]], [[wiki/Fitness Landscape|Fitness Landscape]] ## Sources / Provenance - Wilke et al. (2001); robustness literature.