On and off over the last few days I’ve been reading a rather interesting piece of short fiction called Tyro by Sam Hughes. (It’s on the guys website so you can read it online.)

It’s a rather complicated short story about a company who writes software using Heuristic Algorithms, basically they write an application that re-writes its self with certain goals in mind and this?iterates?over and over checking against the goals until they’re reach and finally you have the application you want. Sort of like biological evolution happening at high speed except for computer programs.

With out giving anything away, I loved the story… although thats probably because I loved the idea behind the story of what would happen if you created a “new intelligent life form” you have no control over… a nice fun read for the computer geeks.

PS: I have learnt why people buy iPads and other tablet like devices… to read these “electronic” documents, laptops are not suited to lying in bed and reading…