One thought: the genetic algorithm doesn't rely upon high-performing outliers exploding in numbers. It relies on recombination of otherwise useless traits from

One thought: the genetic algorithm doesn't rely upon high-performing outliers exploding in numbers. It relies on recombination of otherwise useless traits from low-performing individuals, into newly high-performing combinations that exist as small populations, not lone individuals. This is a reason to be extremely wary of the notion of culling the unfit. And that notion is an offshoot of being too caught up in the cult of the genius individual. Ain't none of us geniuses in isolation: effectiveness is the combination of genius and environment. You get the amazing individuals when a genius grows up in an environment that would've nurtured them pretty well even if they were not a genius… an environment that spends a lot of time and energy nurturing the unfit. This applies as much to the environment cultivating those in poverty without hope, as it does to cultivating rich useless parasites without character. Either way, you cultivate the environment and the occasional individual pops out as exceptional, and makes breakthroughs.