CMA-ES, Live

Spent a chunk of this month building an interactive version of CMA-ES, an optimisation algorithm. It scatters a cloud of guesses, keeps the good ones, and adjusts the position, size and shape of the cloud to follow whatever has been working.

One point for where it is, one number for how far it is reaching, and one matrix for which directions have been paying off lately. Watching that ellipse tilt and stretch itself to fit a narrow valley is fun.

https://www.kenreid.co.uk/blog/cma-es-live.html

Does anyone else find watching an algorithm converge strangely relaxing, or is that just me?