# Self-Replicating System > **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:** Computation / Biology / Continuity **Doc Type:** Canonical Wiki Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition A self-replicating system is an organized process that produces another operational instance sufficiently similar to continue the copying lineage. ## Machine-Evolution Context The definition includes a system’s dependence on external materials and machinery. No replicator is literally self-sufficient; the question is which causal work belongs to the replicator and which to its environment. ## Continuity and Evidence Boundary Replication fidelity, inherited variation and competition determine whether the system can evolve. Identity and moral status remain separate questions. ## Relationships [[wiki/Self-Replication|Self-Replication]], [[wiki/Replicator|Replicator]], [[wiki/Universal Constructor|Universal Constructor]], [[wiki/Receiving Substrate|Receiving Substrate]] ## Sources / Provenance - von Neumann (1966); Sayama and Nehaniv (2025).