Continuous Evolutionary Programming: Analysis and Experiments

Evolutionary programming is a method for simulating evolution that emphasizes the behavioral rather than the genetic relationship of parents and their offspring. In a typical evolutionary program, every parent simultaneously generates a number of offspring, which are all subsequently placed in competition. Evolution can be abstracted as a more continuous process by generating only a single offspring from one parent and then immediately placing it in competition with all existing solutions. Some theoretical observations are made with respect to this new model. The results of empirical trials on a test landscape with multiple local minima indicate that the standard method of reproduction and selection may be more appropriate for practical optimization problems.