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"Evolved" Caches Could Speed the Net
SpaceDilbert writes "According to New Scientist, evolutionary algorithms could make many network caches twice as efficient. This article describes a study carried out by a US researcher and two German academics, who "evolved" algorithms to determine what data should be held at a cache and for how long."
Are we impressed? A mere doubling in efficiency should be achievable by even the drunkest engineer in all but the most well studied problems.
Let's talk an order of magnitude and then you will get my attention. Caching...Hah! I want fibre to my wetwire.
+1 Insightful
Evolution is the change in allele frequencies over time. Pure and simple, that's all it is. Check any evolutionary biology book.
No, it's not that simple. Evolution has been defined as changes adding up enough so that a single celled organism becomes a multi-celled organism, which develops RNA and DNA, which then grows in complexity to develop various "macro" level systems such as a cardio-pulminary system, a digestive tract, a nervous system, and a central control "brain" system. Each of these changes requires a macro change of which no predecessor exists in the current chain of organics.
The notion of giraffes sprouting gills is absurd and not even remotely what evolution is except in the creationist strawmen.
Actually, my first example was the very real issue of a single celled ameba becoming multi-celled. A giraffe sprouting gills would be an evolutionary change, but is highly unlikely. A more realistic example is a fish developing lungs. According to the current theories, most life originated in the ocean. I don't remember if the current thought is that lungs and gills developed simultaneously or if they developed in unison. Either way, the effect is much the same. A low order life form developed features not currently in its genetic makeup.
It's like saying that water can move grains of sand, but there's no proof that a lot of water will eventually erode a beach.
That's a perfectly valid assumption. How do you know that grains of sand don't get carried down to replace the ones that are eroded? Without proof that the grains are carried away without being replaced, you only have a supposition. You must have evidence to make it a workable theory, and absolute proof to call it a fact.
The evolutionary algorithm will have a range of all possible algorithms that can be developed, so in a sense it is limited to "test various algorithms", though it would be testing all possible algorithms.
Which is exactly my point. No new algorithm will be generated through the "genetic breeding". Only existing algorithms will rise to the top.
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ANY environmental adaptation of genetic code over multiple generations is evolution.
No, it's been shoe-horned into the theory. Evolution is a concept that a new, higher level trait will develop when no prior concept exists. For example, a single celled organism will become multi-celled, multi-celled with develop "cell types", and "cell types" will organize to produce higher systems (circulatory, digestion, nervous, brain, etc.). That's the theory. It's a fine that it's being worked on, and I have no issue with that. But adaption to environment is a different concept. They can theorize that it's related in some way, shape, or form, but until someone can show that new genetics suddenly "appear" through the same process, you can't force the two concepts together.
If fact, creationists are the only ones that I have ever heard use the terms.
I don't know where you ever got that idea. I'd never heard of the terms until evolutionary texts started using them. As usual, Wikipedia has the info.
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