I thought they share a key with the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie-Hellman_key_exchange

So it doesn't matter if someone captures the initial handshake.

With this I absolutely agree and I concede.

There will definately be vestigal stuff left over unless there is evolutionary pressure to remove it, and usually there isn't.

By iteratively solving across the entire solution space and comparing this to the algorithm output.

For a class project, this is possible; however, I understand that you would truly apply optimization algorithms to problems in order to NOT iteratively solve them.

Are you implying that the genetic algorithm doesn't find the global maximum?

optimize - to make as perfect, effective, or functional as possible

"As a general rule of thumb genetic algorithms might be useful in problem domains that have a complex fitness landscape as recombination is designed to move the population away from local optima that a traditional hill climbing algorithm might get stuck in." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_algorithm

While it is true that sexual crossover of genes will only optimize to the best solution available in the gene pool, mutation allows a global solution to be found. When I tested this algorithm myself, I specifically chose an over-constrained problem that had many local maxima and no clear "best-solution." The genetic algorithm then found the multiple "best" solutions and had 3 distinct gene groups, with the largest being the most fit according to the fitting function. So while the entire gene pool did not converge to a single maximum, it did find the global maxima.

It would be an interesting experiment to make a webpage that presents you two equivalent flash movies with varying frame rates (as you described).

Have the two movies in a random order with a random frame rate (say, 12, 15, 24, 30, 45, 60, etc)

Then have the user merely select which looks "better/smoother."

It would be interesting (as you point out) to see at what frame rate there is no longer a clear winner.

How about "optimize" instead of fashion.
After doing some programming work with genetic algorithm optimization, I realized that although evolution may choose one gene path or another, the end result is always the same: the most optimized solution for survival, tool making, etc.
So I agree, not designed; absolutely optimized.

Or some CD players: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdAmEEAiJWo

Better yet. All passengers are sedated for the duration of the flight.

This is a great idea for a number of reasons.