Algorithms are turning up in the most unlikely places, promising to assert mathematical probability into corners of our lives where intuition, instinct and hunches have long held sway.

Right now, [Kory]’s computer that can program itself only does so by creating simple ‘hello world’ programs.

Most significantly, it exhibits only a linear growth in the solution times based on the number of connections between nodes. In addition, the structure of the algorithm is such that it simultaneously ...