- author = "Michael Conrad",
- title = "The Price of Programmability",
- booktitle = "The Universal {Turing} Machine A Half-Century Survey",
- publisher = "Oxford University Press",
- year = "1988",
- editor = "Rolf Herken",
- pages = "285--307",
- keywords = "genetic algorithms, genetic programming, cellular automata, evolvable hardware, quantum computing, DNA and molecular computing",
- ISBN = "0-19-853741-7",
- isbn13 = "978-3211826379",
-
URL = "
http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/W.Langdon/ftp/papers/Con88.pdf",
-
URL = "
https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=57260",
-
DOI = "
doi:10.1093/oso/9780198537748.003.0011",
- size = "23 pages",
- abstract = "Programmability and computational efficiency are fundamental attributes of computing systems. A third attribute is evolutionary adaptability, the ability of a system to self-organise through a variation and selection process. The author has previously proposed that these three attributes of computing are linked by a trade-off principle, which may be roughly stated thus: a computing system cannot at the same time have high programmability, high computational efficiency, and high evolutionary adaptability (e.g., Conrad 1972, 1974, 1985). The purpose of the present paper is to outline the reasons for the trade-off principle in a manner which, though not entirely formal, is sufficiently detailed to allow for a well-defined formulation. We also consider the implications of the principle, first for alternative computer architectures. suited to solving problems by methods of evolutionary search and second, for limits on the capacity of programmable machines to simulate nature and duplicate intelligence.",
-
notes = "Aug 2018 Springer DOI broken (removed Nov 2018)
DOI and abstract refer to second edition published by in 1995 Springer as Volume 2 in their Computerkultur Series ISSN: 0946-9613 (Print). p261-281. isbn 978-3-211-82637-9 Rest refers to OUP original publication.
Reviewed by Chris Hankin: https://academic.oup.com/logcom/article-pdf/1/6/884/2779480/1-6-884.pdf
Essex Library Classmark Q 312
Evolution of programs. p287-288 'A real system is (effectively) programmable'...if 'the user's manual' is 'finite'. 'as programs become large it is inevitable that they will in some measure be incorrect (see Avizienis 1983)'. p294 stuff about evolution which seems to have wrong mutation rates and ignore the possibility of neutral mutations or gene duplications. p296 fitness landscapes referred to as 'adaptive surface'. Redundancy...'opens up extradimensional bypasses to higher adaptive peaks (Conrad 1979).
p303-304 'Quantum mechanical tunnelling...and electron diffusion...(Biological macromolecules, eg DNA) excellent type of dynamics for (computing) modules in an evolutionary architecture'. p304 'Evolutionary programming'. p304 'substrate is of such immense importance'. p305 'Human intelligence (brain)...we cannot understand them in terms of a computer program and at the same time put our understanding to the test by running the program on a machine.",
