Survey of Genetic Algorithms and Genetic Programming

This paper provides an introduction to genetic algorithms and genetic programming and lists sources of additional information, including books and conferences as well as e-mail lists and software that is available over the Internet. 1. GENETIC ALGORITHMS John Holland's pioneering book Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems (1975, 1992) showed how the evolutionary process can be applied to solve a wide variety of problems using a highly parallel technique that is now called the genetic algorithm. The genetic algorithm (GA) transforms a population (set) of individual objects, each with an associated fitness value, into a new generation of the population using the Darwinian principle of reproduction and survival of the fittest and analogs of naturally occurring genetic operations such as crossover (sexual recombination) and mutation. Each individual in the population represents a possible solution to a given problem. The genetic algorithm attempts to find a very good (or best) ..