I Was Efficiently Computed, Therefore I Am

Have you wondered where you come from? Not physically, but computationally? A while back, I decided to investigate. At its core, my approach was simple: Find a well-defined non-trivial computational problem—any well-defined non-trivial computational problem—that recombinative evolution solves efficiently.

In a Ph.D. dissertation, completed in 2009, I proposed a new explanation for the the workings of genetic algorithms, a class of algorithms that mimic recombinative evolution and frequently procure useful solutions to poorly understood optimization problems. The explanation proceeds from evidence that genetic algorithms can implement a general-purpose global search heuristic called hyperclimbing extraordinarily scaleably. Hyperclimbing in evolutionary systems is powered by efficient hypomixability elimination.

This, I believe, is where I come from