Combine this with massively parallel processing on field programmable chips and who knows what kind of questions could be solved by a computer whose configuration and operation no one would recognize before too long. Add in a search for consciousness, and stand back.

This reminds me of the Eureka machine a few years ago.

Your thumbnail is a mr. penis.

Levin and Lobo are quite adamant that what they programed their computer to do "is not just statistics or number-crunching," says Levin. Through trail and error, the computer invented an accurate model of the inner-workings of the flatworm.

ok, but...

Although the computer needed just three days to solve the flatworm genetics problem, Levin says that it took years and years to design and prepare the computer program. For one thing, the duo had to track down hundreds of scientific experiments performed on flatworms just to translate those experiments into a massive database for the computer—essentially giving the machine rigidly structured raw material.

I still think of this as Levin and Lobo used a computer to solve a problem that was presented to it with data that was presented to it using a program that was created for the purpose of solving the problem.