We should all be familiar with the basic concepts of evolution from our days in school (most likely in biology classes). But what if we took those concepts and pushed them into realms outside the biological?
Over the years, we have seen advances in computing that have opened the worlds of electronics and software to new design methodologies. Instead of an engineer or team of engineers, we use the process of evolution to direct a design process towards a specific goal. For example, on of the most complex problems in mathematics is the so called “traveling salesman” problem. By using genetic algorithms, we can evolve a solution to a complex problem that is not necessarily intuitive or obvious. This is the power of evolutionary design.
I found an interesting article on DamnInteresting.com which discussed the use of FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) and evolutionary principles to design a circuit which could achieve a specific result. In this case, the problem to solve was to differentiate between two different sounds. The solution turned out to be far more interesting than you might first think.
Dr. Thompson peered inside his perfect offspring to gain insight into its methods, but what he found inside was baffling. The plucky chip was utilizing only thirty-seven of its one hundred logic gates, and most of them were arranged in a curious collection of feedback loops. Five individual logic cells were functionally disconnected from the rest– with no pathways that would allow them to influence the output– yet when the researcher disabled any one of them the chip lost its ability to discriminate the tones. Furthermore, the final program did not work reliably when it was loaded onto other FPGAs of the same type.
It seems that evolution had not merely selected the best code for the task, it had also advocated those programs which took advantage of the electromagnetic quirks of that specific microchip environment. The five separate logic cells were clearly crucial to the chip’s operation, but they were interacting with the main circuitry through some unorthodox method– most likely via the subtle magnetic fields that are created when electrons flow through circuitry, an effect known as magnetic flux. There was also evidence that the circuit was not relying solely on the transistors’ absolute ON and OFF positions like a typical chip; it was capitalizing upon analogue shades of gray along with the digital black and white.
What I find most amazing in this case were the use of what I would call “second order effects”. The solution wasn’t obtained simply through the gates and their simple on/off positions, but was instead achieved by taking advantage of the various interactions of the different chip components. The behavior of things like the magnetic fields, the interaction of various voltages and temperatures all contribute in some way to achieving the result. Based on this work, it is entirely likely you could evolve a chip which would understand simple commands spoken to it, as this research did when he got the chip to differentiate between “stop” and “go”.
There is more reading to be found, and I would encourage you to explore the other articles listed at the bottom of the original article. For your amusement, I have included a link to my favorite author Neal Stephenson’s short story “Jipi and the Paranoid Chip” [story]. It sort of brings into light some of the implications of evolved electronics, as pointed out in the article.
