In recent years, probabilistic inference algorithms such as survey propagation and belief propagation have been shown to be remarkably effective at tackling large, random instances of SAT, and other combinatorial optimization problems that lie beyond the reach of previous approaches. These inference algorithms belong to a class of techniques called decimation strategies. Decimation strategies monotonically reduce the size of a problem instance by iteratively fixing partial solutions (partial variable assignments in the case of SAT).

The generative fixation hypothesis essentially states that genetic algorithms work by efficiently implementing a decimation strategy called hyperclimbing.