Importance of choosing the right algorithm

Yesterday, I saw a movie called ” Edge of tomorrow“.  I loved the concept and the thought process which went behind the plot of this movie. Let me summarize the plot (without commenting on the climax, of course). Unlike other sci-fi movies, this movie revolves around one single power which is given to both the sides (hero and villain). The power being the ability to reset the day.

Human race is at war with an alien species called “Mimics”.  Mimic is described as a far more evolved civilization of an alien species. Entire Mimic civilization is like a single complete organism. It has a central brain called “Omega” which commands all other organisms in the civilization. It stays in contact with all other species of the civilization every single second. “Alpha” is the main warrior species (like the nervous system) of this civilization and takes command from “Omega”. “Omega” has the power to reset the day at any point of time.

Now, let’s wear the hat of a predictive analyst to analyze this plot. If a system has the ability to reset the day at any point of time, it will use this power, whenever any of its warrior species die. And, hence there will be no single war ,when any of the warrior species (alpha) will actually die, and the brain “Omega” will repeatedly test the best case scenario to maximize the death of human race and put a constraint on number of deaths of alpha (warrior species) to be zero every single day. You can imagine this as “THE BEST” predictive algorithm ever made. It is literally impossible to defeat such an algorithm.