Actually the most remarkable thing you find is how _little_ structure you need to get evolution algorithms to work. I've thrown together random structures with

Actually the most remarkable thing you find is how _little_ structure you need to get evolution algorithms to work. I've thrown together random structures with feedback that are inherently nonlinear and chaotic, and evolutionary algorithms are able to quickly find parameters that stabilize them and optimize for the survival reward. The solutions are incredibly clever and in my case sometimes matched designed that were in PhD theses that took a human decades to design by hand. Similarly the details of the evolutionary 'training' also tend not to matter much, just about any algorithm that prefers better instances (by whatever metric) with a very slightly higher probability will converge after a reasonable number of generations. Exponential processes are always surprising. If you have a trait or parameter than confers only a 1% chance of helping survival, it will have an effect of (1.01)^100 =2.7x after only 100 generation. After 1000 generations the effect is 21,000x.