Can we get bacteria to solve a problem large enough to challenge a person?

If bacteria can be used to optimize, that is minimize or maximize a function, then we are looking at a significant contribution. Even if the bacteria can get reasonably good solutions to a function, i.e. a heuristic approach, that is significant. For example, consider the following very small "fitness" function where the variables a, b and c are either 0 or 1.

minimize 2 - a + 2*b*c - b

This is an example from a small max 2-sat problem. What values of a, b and c minimize this function? Did you consider this a challenging problem?

Is there a way to program e. coli to evolve according to their fitness as measured by this equation? Note that a minimization is easily transposed to a maximization via the negation of the function.