[amoshebb]

“Typology optimization” is probably what you’re thinking of. All current versions of it result in this similar blobby-spider-web vaguely alien and somewhat organic structures.

Looking at things like bicycles designed this way leaves me suspicious that it doesn’t actually have the power to derive interesting insights about material properties. I suspect future versions may end up starting to look more mechanical as it discovers that, for example, something under tension should be a straight line.

[MITSardine]

Shape optimization can be done under constraints of manufacturability, which would avoid exotic shapes that can't be worked with.

Why would that be the case, though? It's conceivable that optimal shapes be very different from what our intuitions suggest.