Andrew, we're not talking about the equivalent of a human studying neuroscience by groping in the dark. If an AI truly, truly groks every line of its own code, it can pretty much do what it wants with it. No need for trial and error when you have full visibility and understanding of every neuron in your head.

How, you ask? What do such recursive algorithms look like? Mere details; the code monkeys can worry about all that stuff!