AI vs. EC
Since the 1940s, computer scientists have been seeking to make machines perform the same kinds of tasks as humans. This pursuit of artificial intelligence (AI) has yielded a lot of impressive results, such as Deep Blue beating a chess grand master, but it has fallen short of people’s expectations: computer translation, for instance, is still a long way away.
And so computer scientists started emulating evolution by natural selection, a process about as far removed from intelligence as possible: try everything and see what works. A process so amazingly stupid that even inert, nonliving material cam perform it. This research seems to have succeeded much better than anyone expected.
Which just goes to show that artificial intelligence is no match for artificial stupidity.