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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Plane Sailing" data-source="post: 3620864" data-attributes="member: 114">When it comes down to thinking about the development of AIs, it may well be that rather than compilers or languages, it will be the algorithms and program structures which are designed which are most likely to lead to unexpected breakthroughs.Now, I'm not going to talk about AI, but about a fascinating example of an interesting kind of algorithm for problem solving - Genetic Algorithms. The reason I want to mention it is because of a fabulous experiment which was performed back in August 2002 with rather unexpected results.For those who may not have heard of Genetic Algorithms, the common approach is to build a software simulator, and sets of 'tests' which can be run through the simulator, and the overall result is 'scored' by a weighted scoring mechanism. You start by generating a whole bunch of random tests, run them through the simulator, score them, throw away the bottom ones and 'breed' the best ones (with a small chance of random mutation occurring too). You then run your new set of tests and so on for 30-50 or more 'generations'.The first example I ever heard of this (in the early 90's) was about solving the problem of launching a rocket, navigating through space and landing on a target planet (with some other planets in the simulator too). The target was to reach the target planet with the minimum use of fuel. By the time they had completed it the algorithm had zeroed in on a route which not only got it there in good time and with lots of fuel left over, it had also stumbled upon gravity slingshots to speed it up and slow it down!The second and even more interesting example can be found on the New Scientist website here <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2732" target="_blank">http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2732</a>I'll let them put it in their own words I love the way that this particular genetic algorithm was designed to produce a certain 'ability', and it did produce the expected output but via utterly unexpected means.In Science Fiction, I like it when (as so rarely happens), AIs are not treated as 'humans with metallic voices', but as utterly alien in their approach to problems.Cheers</blockquote>

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