The study of the genetic basis for evolution has flourished in this century, as well as our understanding of the evolvability and programmability of biological systems. Genetic algorithms meanwhile grew out of the realization that a computer program could use the biologically-inspired processes of mutation, recombination, and selection to solve hard optimization problems. Genetic and evolutionary programming provide further approaches to a wide variety of computational problems. A synthesis of these experiences reveals fundamental insights into both the computational nature of biological evolution and processes of importance to computer science. Topics include biological models of nucleic acid information processing and genome evolution; molecules, cells, and metabolic circuits that compute logical relationships; the origin and evolution of the genetic code; and the interface with genetic algorithms and genetic and evolutionary programming.

The concepts of evolution and complexity theory have become part of the intellectual ether permeating the life sciences, the social and behavioral sciences, and, more recently, management science and economics. In this book, John E. Mayfield elegantly synthesizes core concepts from multiple disciplines to offer a new approach to understanding how evolution works and how complex organisms, structures, organizations, and social orders can and do arise based on information theory and computational science. Intended for the intellectually adventuresome, this book challenges and rewards readers with a nuanced understanding of evolution and complexity that offers consistent, durable, and coherent explanations for major aspects of our life experiences. Numerous examples throughout the book illustrate evolution and complexity formation in action and highlight the core function of computation lying at the work's heart.

The first complete overview of evolutionary computing, the collective name for a range of problem-solving techniques based on principles of biological evolution, such as natural selection and genetic inheritance. The text is aimed directly at lecturers and graduate and undergraduate students. It is also meant for those who wish to apply evolutionary computing to a particular problem or within a given application area. The book contains quick-reference information on the current state-of-the-art in a wide range of related topics, so it is of interest not just to evolutionary computing specialists but to researchers working in other fields.

A clear and comprehensive introduction to the field of evolutionary computation that takes an integrated approach. Evolutionary computation, the use of evolutionary systems as computational processes for solving complex problems, is a tool used by computer scientists and engineers who want to harness the power of evolution to build useful new artifacts, by biologists interested in developing and testing better models of natural evolutionary systems, and by artificial life scientists for designing and implementing new artificial evolutionary worlds. In this clear and comprehensive introduction to the field, Kenneth De Jong presents an integrated view of the state of the art in evolutionary computation. Although other books have described such particular areas of the field as genetic algorithms, genetic programming, evolution strategies, and evolutionary programming, Evolutionary Computation is noteworthy for considering these systems as specific instances of a more general class of evolutionary algorithms. This useful overview of a fragmented field is suitable for classroom use or as a reference for computer scientists and engineers.

Concentrates on developing intuition about evolutionary computation and problem solving skills and tool sets. Lots of applications and test problems, including a biotechnology chapter.

Part 1: Fascinating Evolution -- Part 2: Evolutionary Computation -- Part 3: If Darwin was a Programmer -- Part 4: Evolution of Developmental Programs.

Rapid advances in evolutionary computation have opened up a world of applications-a world rapidly growing and evolving. Decision making, neural networks, pattern recognition, complex optimization/search tasks, scheduling, control, automated programming, and cellular automata applications all rely on evolutionary computation. Evolutionary Computation presents the basic principles of evolutionary computing: genetic algorithms, evolution strategies, evolutionary programming, genetic programming, learning classifier systems, population models, and applications. It includes detailed coverage of binary and real encoding, including selection, crossover, and mutation, and discusses the (m+l) and (m,l) evolution strategy principles. The focus then shifts to applications: decision strategy selection, training and design of neural networks, several approaches to pattern recognition, cellular automata, applications of genetic programming, and more.