Optimal Ordered Problem Solver

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We present a novel, general, optimally fast, incremental way of searching for a universal algorithm that solves each task in a sequence of tasks. The Optimal Ordered Problem Solver (OOPS) continually organizes and exploits previously found solutions to earlier tasks, efficiently searching not only the space of domain-specific algorithms, but also the space of search algorithms. Essentially we extend the principles of optimal nonincremental universal search to build an incremental universal learner that is able to improve itself through experience. In illustrative experiments, our self-improver becomes the first general system that learns to solve all n disk Towers of Hanoi tasks (solution size 2ⁿ-1) for n up to 30, profiting from previously solved, simpler tasks involving samples of a simple context free language.