What is GENETIC ALGORITHMS

These posts introduce some fundamentals of genetic algorithms. Pages are intended to be used for learning about genetic algorithms without any previous knowledge from this area. Only some knowledge of computer programming is assumed.

As the area of genetic algorithms is very wide, it is not possible to cover everything in these pages. But you should get some idea, what the genetic algorithms are and what they could be useful for. Do not expect any sophisticated mathematics theories here.

Idea of evolutionary computing was introduced in the 1960s by I. Rechenberg in his work "Evolution strategies" (Evolutions strategie in original). His idea was then developed by other researchers. Genetic Algorithms (GAs) were invented by John Holland and developed by him and his students and colleagues. This lead to Holland's book "Adaption in Natural and Artificial Systems" published in 1975.

In 1992 John Koza has used genetic algorithm to evolve programs to perform certain tasks. He called his method "genetic programming" (GP). LISP programs were used, because programs in this language can express in the form of a "parse tree", which is the object the GA works on.