Along with Linguistics, the study of human (and animal) material culture was the first field where evolutionary theories of culture were applied ; it began just after the publication of Darwin’s Origin if Species. Before that, the similarities between species of organisms and artifacts (both are adapatations to functions, both exist in several exemplars very similar to each other, both have ways of working well, or not) were often remarked and debated. Contemporary Analytical Philosophy has been building, for thirty years now, a unified definition of functions in general, which allows machines and organisms to be refferred to in the same language, a language of which Natural Selection is the fundamental basis. This advance paves the way for a general evolutionary Theory of Design, that would include the study both of organisms and artifacts.

Machines are different from many organisms (but not all) in this respect: their reproduction must happen through the human brain. Their functions are not determined by their sole evolutionary success (as is the case of living case, and, increasingly, that of industrial objects), but also by their maker's intentions. Their evolution is Man-directed.