Editing Darwin machine (section)

A '''Darwin machine''' (a 1987 coinage by [[William H. Calvin]], by [[analogy]] to a [[Turing machine]]) is a machine that, like a Turing machine, involves an [[iteration]] process that yields a high-quality result, but, whereas a Turing machine uses [[logic]], the Darwin machine uses rounds of variation, [[Selection (biology)|selection]], and [[inheritance]].
 
In its original connotation, a Darwin machine is any process that [[Bootstrapping|bootstrap]]s quality by using all of the six essential features of a Darwinian process:  A ''pattern'' is ''copied'' with ''variations'', where populations of one variant pattern ''compete'' with another population, their relative success biased by a ''multifaceted environment'' ([[natural selection]]) so that winners predominate in producing the further variants of the next generation (Darwin's ''inheritance principle'').

More loosely, a Darwin machine is a process that uses some subset of the Darwinian essentials, typically [[natural selection]] to create a non-reproducing pattern, as in [[neural Darwinism]]. Many aspects of [[neural development]] use overgrowth followed by pruning to a pattern, but the resulting pattern does not itself create further copies.

''Darwin machine'' has been used multiple times to name computer programs after [[Charles Darwin]].