<p>Take a look at <a href="http://arxiv.org/pdf/1410.5401v2.pdf" rel="nofollow">Neural Turing Machines</a> by Alex Graves, Greg Wayne and Ivo Danihelka from Google DeepMind.</p>

<p>Abstract:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>We extend the capabilities of neural networks by coupling them to
  external memory resources, which they can interact with by attentional
  processes. The combined system is analogous to a Turing Machine or Von
  Neumann architecture but is differentiable end-to-end, allowing it to
  be efficiently trained with gradient descent. Preliminary results
  demonstrate that <strong>Neural Turing Machines can infer simple algorithms
  such as copying, sorting, and associative recall from input and output
  examples.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
Exhaustive search for algorithms - existing works?
<p>You might have to read this twice so that my idea becomes clear. Please be patient.<br>
I'm looking for existing work for exhausive search for algorithms for given problems. Exhaustive search is also known as brute force search, or simply brute force.</p>

<p>Other exhaustive search algorithms search for a solution for a given problem. Usually, a solution for such a problem is some data which fulfills some requirements.</p>

<p><strong>Exhaustive search example</strong>:<br>
You want the solution for a KNAPSACK problem. That is the objects which can be packed into the bag so that there is no other combination of objects which fit into the bag and which would sum up to a bigger value than your result  combination.<br>
You can solve this by going over all possible combinations (exhaustive) and search for the one which fits into the bag and which is the most valuable one of those combinations.</p>

<p>What I'm looking for is just a special case of exhaustive search: Exhaustive search which searches for an algorithm as a solution. So in the end, <strong>I'm looking for an algorithm which searches for an algorithm which solves some given problem.</strong></p>

<p>You might say: Go google it. Well, yes I've done that. The difficulty I'm facing here is that googling for "algorithm which searches for another algorithm" results in all the same as "another search algorithm". Obviously, this has too many unwanted results, so I'm stuck here.</p>

<p>How can I find existing work related to exhaustive search for algorithms?<br>
More specifically: Has there any software been written for this? Can you point me to any links or algorithm names/better keywords in relation to this topic?</p>

<p><strong>Update</strong>:<br>
The purpose for which I'm looking for such an algorithm search is solving problems for which no good heuristics are known, e.g. prooving-algorithms or trying to finding other solution algorithms for problems which might or might not be NP-complete problems (thus proving that the problem is not NP-complete if a faster algorithm can be found; without any human interaction).</p>