How many of you are Extreme Programmers?

[Robin Becker]

I get the impression that XP is intended as a design none/test all
process where the code some grows organically into the requirement
through bursts of coding and testing. It even seems as though the
testing is primary.

This sounds remarkably similar to what we commonly call genetic
optimisation or evolution strategy selection. There a fitness criterion
is applied to randomly selected elements of a pool of solutions, with
the fittest being combined/mutated etc and flung back into the next
testing round. In GP the expertise is almost always in the fitness
criterion and in the representation of solution candidates.

Can XP be reduced to choosing candidates from the pool of programs that
best satisfy a set of tests? If so experience from GP suggests that the
tests require care to avoid common pitfalls. As an example a program
might complete all the tests perfectly, but fail on all other instances
of data (this commonly happens to overspecialised solutions).

Do XPers combine differing solutions etc etc? 
-- 
Robin Becker