Folks: I thought John Nash's comment below was profound and a possible Fortunes candidate: (Aside: I believe it applies to a great deal of what is discussed on this list, not just stochastic optimization.) Cheers, Bert ... (in the context of stochastic optimization)
... As with many tools in this domain, for effective use they require more knowledge than many of their users possess, and can be dangerous because they seem to "work". JN
Bert Gunter Genentech Nonclinical Biostatistics Internal Contact Info: Phone: 467-7374 Website: http://pharmadevelopment.roche.com/index/pdb/pdb-functional-groups/pdb-biostatistics/pdb-ncb-home.htm