genius: 1% inspiration, 99% evolutionary algorithms

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) use Darwinian principles to breed and weed designs, often ending up with products quite unlike standard human inventions. Now, with massive computing power within reach, expect more EAs to be applied in all kinds of design environments.

There are some critics who worry that EA designs are too inscrutable to engineers and safety testers, but by far the silliest complaint comes from James Dyson, he of the vacuum.

"Evolutionary algorithms will mean the end of those exciting stories about how people made great inventions by accident," he says. "Human ingenuity and intuition should remain crucial in making a success of any product."

Since robots already took away all our jobs, this means the demise of humankind as we know it.

In all seriousness, I detect a bit of jealousy in Dyson's lament. After all, as this commercial attests, it took him "a few thousand prototypes" to perfect his famous boneless skinless vacuum. EAs might have made luck a little less necessary--and maybe even helped craft a better vacuum than Dyson's dreamchild.