Evolutionary programming is one of the four major evolutionary algorithm paradigms. It is similar to genetic programming, but the structure of the program to be optimized is fixed, while its numerical parameters are allowed to evolve.
It was first used by Lawrence J. Fogel in the US in 1960 in order to use simulated evolution as a learning process aiming to generate artificial intelligence. Fogel used finite state machines as predictors and evolved them. Currently evolutionary programming is a wide evolutionary computing dialect with no fixed structure or (representation), in contrast with some of the other dialects. It is becoming harder to distinguish from evolutionary strategies.
Its main variation operator is mutation; members of the population are viewed as part of a specific species rather than members of the same species therefore each parent generates an offspring, using a (μ + μ) survivor selection.
Famous quotes containing the words evolutionary and/or programming:
“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.”
—Stanley Weiser, U.S. screenwriter, and Oliver Stone. Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas)
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)