Programs with Stringent Performance Objectives Will Often Exhibit Chaotic Behavior

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that software designed for high-performance objectives, like chess, can exhibit chaotic behavior, highlighting fundamental limitations in static evaluation methods due to complex underlying dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach combining game theory and autonomous systems to analyze the chaotic nature of certain high-performance software problems.

Findings

Chess exhibits chaotic behavior in its configuration space.

Chaotic dynamics imply limitations for static evaluators in game-playing software.

High-performance software problems can be modeled as autonomous systems with complex behavior.

Abstract

Software for the resolution of certain kind of problems, those that rate high in the Stringent Performance Objectives adjustment factor (IFPUG scheme), can be described using a combination of game theory and autonomous systems. From this description it can be shown that some of those problems exhibit chaotic behavior, an important fact in understanding the functioning of the related software. As a relatively simple example, it is shown that chess exhibits chaotic behavior in its configuration space. This implies that static evaluators in chess programs have intrinsic limitations.