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Is this really so novel? Engineers have been using evolutionary algorithms to create antennas and other components since the early 2000s at least. I remember wa

by janice1999 2y ago

Is this really so novel? Engineers have been using evolutionary algorithms to create antennas and other components since the early 2000s at least. I remember watching a FOSDEM presentation on an 'evolved' DSP for radios in the 2010s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolved_antenna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolved_antenna

happytoexplain 2y ago
I don't believe it's comparable. Yes, we've used algorithms to find "weird shapes that work" for a long time, but they've always been very testable. AI is being used for more complex constructs that have exponentially-exponentially greater testable surface area (like programs and microarch).
xanderlewis 2y ago
This is really interesting and I’m surprised I’ve never even heard of it before. Now I’m imagining antennas breeding and producing cute little baby antennas that (provided they’re healthy enough) survive to go on to produce more baby antennas with similar characteristics, and so on… It’s a weird feeling to look at that NASA spacecraft antenna, knowing that it’s the product of an evolutionary process in the genuine, usual sense. It’s the closest we can get to looking at an alien. For now.
- jhot 2y ago
  Two antennas get married. The wedding was ok but the reception was great!
  - xanderlewis 2y ago
    Well done.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
nyeah 2y ago
Yes, for low-frequency analog circuits these experiments go back to the 1990s at least. J. R. Koza, F. H Bennett, D. Andre, M. A. Keane, and F. Dunlap, “Automated synthesis of analog electrical circuits by means of genetic programming,” IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., vol. 1, pp. 109–128, July 1997. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/4235.687879 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/4235.687879
Wingman4l7 2y ago
There was also the more relevant (defunct) Distributed Hardware Evolution Project from the University of Sussex, which was using genetic algorithms to evolve circuits: https://wiki.bc-team.org/index.php?title=Distributed_Hardware_Evolution_Project/en https://wiki.bc-team.org/index.php?title=Distributed_Hardwar...
1970-01-01 2y ago
Yes, it's nothing novel. But it is AI adjacent news, so it automagically becomes a headline.

happytoexplain 2y ago

I don't believe it's comparable. Yes, we've used algorithms to find "weird shapes that work" for a long time, but they've always been very testable. AI is being used for more complex constructs that have exponentially-exponentially greater testable surface area (like programs and microarch).

xanderlewis 2y ago

This is really interesting and I’m surprised I’ve never even heard of it before. Now I’m imagining antennas breeding and producing cute little baby antennas that (provided they’re healthy enough) survive to go on to produce more baby antennas with similar characteristics, and so on… It’s a weird feeling to look at that NASA spacecraft antenna, knowing that it’s the product of an evolutionary process in the genuine, usual sense. It’s the closest we can get to looking at an alien. For now.

jhot 2y ago
Two antennas get married. The wedding was ok but the reception was great!
- xanderlewis 2y ago
  Well done.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

nyeah 2y ago

Yes, for low-frequency analog circuits these experiments go back to the 1990s at least. J. R. Koza, F. H Bennett, D. Andre, M. A. Keane, and F. Dunlap, “Automated synthesis of analog electrical circuits by means of genetic programming,” IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., vol. 1, pp. 109–128, July 1997. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/4235.687879 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/4235.687879

Wingman4l7 2y ago

There was also the more relevant (defunct) Distributed Hardware Evolution Project from the University of Sussex, which was using genetic algorithms to evolve circuits: https://wiki.bc-team.org/index.php?title=Distributed_Hardware_Evolution_Project/en https://wiki.bc-team.org/index.php?title=Distributed_Hardwar...

1970-01-01 2y ago

Yes, it's nothing novel. But it is AI adjacent news, so it automagically becomes a headline.