I've been thinking: computing systems such as the Lambda Calculus and its variations are usually very simple and can be implemented in as few as ~80 lines of Haskell code. There is a self-interpreter for the Binary Lambda Calculus in 210 bits. Considering PL research mostly consists of the search of similar systems with desirable characteristics (such as being supercompilable, or capable of expressing proofs), and taking in account how information-starved those systems are, wouldn't it be interesting to use automated search techniques such as genetic programming or just breadth-first search to find those? Has that been tried already?
How useful is program search in the field of programming-language theory?
pl.programming languages;computability;machine learning;genetic programming