2. Evolutionary Computing: The Origins

This chapter provides the reader with the basics for studying evolutionary computing (EC) through this book. We begin with a brief history of the field of evolutionary computing, followed by an introduction to some of the biological processes that have served as inspiration and that have provided a rich source of ideas and metaphors to researchers. We then discuss motivations for working with, and studying, evolutionary computing methods. We end with examples of applications where EC was successfully applied.

Contents:
2.1 The Main Evolutionary Computing Metaphor…………… 13
2.2 Brief History…………………………………….. 14
2.3 The Inspiration from Biology ……………………….. 15
2.3.1 Darwinian Evolution…………………………. 15
2.3.2 Genetics ………………………………….. 17
2.3.3 Putting It Together………………………….. 19
2.4 Evolutionary Computing: Why? ……………………… 20

Suggested Reading

Exercises

The on-line accompaniment to the book Introduction to Evolutionary Computing