[daveguy]

> It might take 4.54 billion years.

And then only if you have a system powerful enough to accurately simulate a planet full of molecules.

Although I do think there is a balance between GA and structured NN which will lead to faster and better results than the deep NN alone. We already see some of the best deep NNs incorporating specific structures.

[eggy]

I think neural networks and other forms of evolutionary computation will merge as I have been writing in my other replies in this thread. TWEANNs incorporate EC into evolving ANNs. The other article I cited above on soil mechanics, beat out expert systems, ANNs, statistics, and used GP. MEP, or Multi-Expression Programming for GP incorporates being able to put more than one solution into a gene without increasing the processing times thereby overcoming the inefficiencies of 1990s-era GP. Here is a recent article using it that is not behind a paywall or via sci-hub.io [1]. It needs better editing, but there are other references if you search for Multi-expression Genetic Programming.

  [1] http://benthamopen.com/ABSTRACT/TOPEJ-9-21