Mutant Programming

A programming technique where code is randomly mutated until the desired run-time behavior is achieved. -MaxRahder

Sounds vaguely related to GeneticProgramming, minus the entire concept of heuristics and mutation-selector-factors (e.g. a survival function, or something that says 'getting warmer! getting colder!). I expect you'd encounter a lot of BrownianMotion, where changes lead you in circles and cycles and rarely possess any real or imposed direction towards reaching a correct program. Indeed, randomly mutating code until desired run-time behavior is achieved is very likely worse than the idea of brute-force searching of the string-space for the correct piece of code to solve the problem, since random mutations allows you to easily hit the same piece of code twice. Only in combination with selectors would this work.

This is an AntiPattern. I see it all the time, and you're right, it's problematic. -MaxRahder