Evolution, Complexity, and Software Platforms

Site (web page) comment bug?

cquirke — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:46:56 GMT

Sometimes when posting comments on this site, the process reloads a different page, rather than the one that was being commented.

This is IE8b1 over IE7 on XP SP2, Standards mode, set to prompt on all active content. I can't repro at will (though certain articles seem to "stick" more than others) and it doesn't seem to matter whether I OK or Cancel the active content alerts.

This particular article page has been affected.

re: Evolution, Complexity, and Software Platforms

Chris Jackson - MSFT — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:10:29 GMT

Erm ... OK then ... I don't think that anybody would suggest that the only way that things can come into existence is by evolution. Some things are designed. It doesn't follow logically that, therefore, everything is.

But this is not the forum to debate biological evolution. Regardless of whether or not you accept this truth, the process and principals can potentially be useful in crafting more efficient ways to solve some of the most challenging problems we face today. And solving problems is what I find interesting!

Life's creation

Jim Thio — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 06:19:30 GMT

Square water melons and genetically engineered food are samples that once in a while, life is created. Not a proof, but a plausibility.

re: Evolution, Complexity, and Software Platforms

Chris Jackson - MSFT — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 22:31:39 GMT

Oh, clearly random variation does not move towards complexity. Rather, random variation moves towards entropy. Evolution does not happen by mutation alone - you need a way of selecting for survival those mutations that are better sutied for the environment.

So, clearly I would not suggest that anybody who wanted to dive into evolutionary algorithms as a means to attempt to solve particularly complex problems do so simply by flipping ones and zeros randomly. Rather, you absolutely must have some form of natural selection.

See, for example, The Blind Watchmaker application. I wish I could find the link, but Daniel Dennett put toghether a speech a while back with some great video demos illustrating evolutionary machine learning.

re: Evolution, Complexity, and Software Platforms

Jonathan Esters — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:49:50 GMT

In biological complexity is about higher levels of organization, not random variation. Variation in the genetic code does not make the organism more complex, because it does not make it more organized. You are mixing up variation with complexity, and using this word incorrectly in context of organic systems. I know its fun to simplify things like mutations to a coin flip- more complex, less complex- but this just reasserts the deliberate ignorance of evolution proponents. Nice try though.

I would like to see you add entirely random variations to the ones and zeroes of a software program, and see it become more organized and more useful. I will even allow you millions of years.