ID:181981
 
Let me run this past ya'll, NASA has, in the past few years created a computerized system they named "Borg" that has the ability to create and test millions of variations of an object in a virtual environment. This system uses a darwinist concept of survival of the fittest, weeding out thos instances that test badly, and mutating those that test well, doing this again and again very rapidly. They had announced that "Borg" had been instremental in creating the worlds best space antenna (witch is reletivly small, and looks like a bent paperclip.)

This is a great advancement for mankind! Not the antenna, but the computer system itself. I could think of a million uses for this system! So it has me wondering, What do they have it doing at this point? It seems to me, that given the state of affairs in america right now, it should be testing various types of generators and coil windings of generators. Imagine, nearly every household in america producing its own electricity because NASA published a generator poducing significant amounts of electricity with very little resistance. We would come to the point where it would be more than affordable to produce small, ligh weight, high rotation windmills! Think about those old windmills being cheaply put back to use, instead of the need to build these giant million dollar monsters!

Tell me what you think, and if anyone has any ideas, let me know who should be screamed at about this.
There are several variations of this idea being worked on all over the world. It's generally referred to as a "genetic algorithm" because it mocks the process of mutation and natural selection.

I think these things hold a lot of promise, and one day may take the human element out of science(still requires a human to define the importance of the results). If that ever happens, if humans are ever made unnecessary, I will both be sad, and be incredibly happy.

Right now, however, the usefulness of such systems is limited. It is mostly a shortcut to doing the work by hand, and generally is a "brute force" attempt that takes advantage of the super powerful servers we have today, but isn't always the most efficient way of doing it.
In response to Danial.Beta
according to the article i read, the "borg" computer system isn't made up of one of these super powerful servers, but is instead made up up a collection of old networked PCs! I find this to be the most amazing part. I myself have access to about 50 old pentium twos that are not doing anything but gathering dust. I wonder how a guy can get his hands on a bit of that code. any of yall out there workin at nasa leak it for me? Thanks in advance lol.