Illinois Genetic Algorithms Laboratory

Pensive Pondering is a new blog and the first few posts comment on the De Jong’s writing on GAFO (GAs as function optimizers) and Wolpert and Macready’s writing on the no free lunch theorem. I’ve always been a card-carrying member of the field’s optimist wing and have almost always found writing about what GAs aren’t or can’t do (1) trivially true and (2) uninteresting. For me the existence proof of nature’s evolved and complex bounty has suggested that what genetic algorithms can do is much more interesting than what they can’t. Thus, I believe we should (1) not spend one nanosecond worrying about the NFL limits and (2) not use GAFO and DeJong’s thinking as an excuse NOT to explore the limits of how fast and effective GAs can be made. The book The Design of Innovation is my answer to the pessimistic wing of the field and subsequent research continues to tell us how we’re just scratching the surface on our understanding of what genetic algorithms can be designed to do.