Does greedy substitution search still work when the printer-redesign list grows past seven items?
research/selfrep-coverscale
Does greedy substitution search still work past seven items (synthetic instances, assumed generator): 96–100% of the exact optimum on average but optimal in only 33–95 of 100 instances; 64 random evaluations fall to about 89% at 24 items.
What it found
A synthetic, preliminary test (100 instances per cell, assumed generator) of budgeted weighted coverage, the shape of the printer-redesign search, for 7 to 24 substitutions with 0 to 0.9 overlap. Greedy gain-per-penalty stays at 96–100% of the exact optimum on average but is exactly optimal in only 33–95 of 100 instances, with a worst case of 49.6%. Local search is best on average (about 99.5%); 64 random evaluations are perfect at 7 items and fall to about 89–90% at 24, so small-list random baselines flatter themselves. Nothing here uses the real bill of materials. Computed only.
A figure from its own output
Paper, code and results
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Produced with AI assistance (Claude). Results are from the code in this repository and are simulated or stylised unless the abstract says otherwise; nothing here implies affiliation with or endorsement by any lab, researcher or company cited. MIT licensed.