Genetic algorithms are not brilliant, but their results sometimes can be. I remember reading and article[0] about a researcher using genetic algorithms on FPGAs

Genetic algorithms are not brilliant, but their results sometimes can be. I remember reading and article[0] about a researcher using genetic algorithms on FPGAs. One paragraph stuck with me through all these years: "Dr. Thompson peered inside his perfect offspring to gain insight into its methods, but what he found inside was baffling. The plucky chip was utilizing only thirty-seven of its one hundred logic gates, and most of them were arranged in a curious collection of feedback loops. Five individual logic cells were functionally disconnected from the rest— with no pathways that would allow them to influence the output— yet when the researcher disabled any one of them the chip lost its ability to discriminate the tones. Furthermore, the final program did not work reliably when it was loaded onto other FPGAs of the same type." Now, I agree with you that, even for a problem as simple as that one (or specially because it's a simple problem, maybe) a "normal" algorithm would perform better. But the fact that the genetic algorithm was able to find the effects of magnetic flux (those five disconnected logic cells) in that specific FPGA is nothing short of brilliant. The problem I've always seen (not an expert, by any means, but I've played around with them a bit) with genetic algorithms is that they require a weird balance. For simple problems, a normal algorithm will probably work better. As the complexity of the problem increases, the scoring and evaluating rules' complexity increases as well (I've got no hard data, of course, but my feeling is that the complexity of the scoring process increases much faster than the complexity of the problem), making a well thought algorithm a better/easier solution. This, and that any mistake in the scoring process might throw away thousands and thousands of generations. [0]http://www.damninteresting.com/on-the-origin-of-circuits/ http://www.damninteresting.com/on-the-origin-of-circuits/