Unearthing a Fossil from the History of Evolutionary Computation

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Fogel, David B.

Affiliations: Natural Selection, Inc., 3333 N. Torrey Pines Ct., Suite 200 La Jolla, CA 92037 email: dfogel@natural-selection.com

Note: [] Address for correspondence: Natural Selection, Inc., 3333 N. Torrey Pines Ct., Suite 200, La Jolla, CA 92037

Abstract: All of science relies on past experimentation and hypotheses. Unfortunately, the science of evolutionary computation is hampered by a general lack of awareness of many early efforts in the field. This paper offers a review of one such contribution from 1967 which employed self-adaptation, co-evolution, and assessed the utility of recombination in various settings. The conclusions, reconfirmed in recent literature, indicate that recombination (uniform or one-point crossover) is best applied in non-epistatic settings. Theoretical analysis supported the experimental findings and now raises questions concerning common applications of schema theory to describe the behavior of evolutionary algorithms.

Keywords: evolutionary algorithms, history of evolutionary computation

DOI: 10.3233/FI-1998-35123401

Journal: Fundamenta Informaticae, vol. 35, no. 1-4, pp. 1-16, 1998