I found this article today about hardware evolution that I found absolutely fascinating. The basic idea is this: you program a microchip with a random set of bits and give it a task to perform. You do this several times and allow the best performers to swap code in an attempt to create a better performing program. The process is similar to organic evolution but on a much faster timeline. Eventually, you will wind up with a program that functions as you expect, but what will you see when you examine the resulting program? The results may surprise you.