# Nils Aall Barricelli > **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 / Mathematical Biology **Doc Type:** Canonical Wiki Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition Nils Aall Barricelli was an Italian-Norwegian mathematical biologist who ran early artificial-evolution experiments on the IAS computer in 1953. ## Nexus Context His number-string organisms mutated, exchanged hereditary material and produced speciation-, parasitism-, predation- and punctuated-equilibrium-like dynamics. The IAS describes him as an artificial-life pioneer decades before the field’s naming. ## Evidence Boundary His systems instantiate population dynamics in a formal world; claims that any specific later biological theory depended on him require separate historical evidence. ## Relationships [[wiki/IAS Computer|IAS Computer]], [[wiki/Artificial Heredity|Artificial Heredity]], [[wiki/Punctuated Equilibrium|Punctuated Equilibrium]], [[wiki/Artificial Life|Artificial Life]] ## Sources / Provenance - Institute for Advanced Study, “Nils A. Barricelli” and “An Artificially Created Universe.”