Re: design: purposeful or random?

Gordon Simons (simons@stat.unc.edu)
Mon, 7 Oct 1996 21:04:53 -0400 (EDT)

Glenn wrote (in response to my question as to what is new):

"The only thing different is that we have a concrete example of actual
design by means of random mutation plus natural selection. It appears to
make a more successful algorithm (not necessarily more efficient or
beautifully coded) than a human who tried to accomplish a given task."

I am fairly confident that the central processing chip you are using in
your computer was designed by trial and error - in a somewhat analogous
way. The task of finding a perfect design is too difficult. The task of
finding a good design by exploiting randomness is much easier.

Gordie