evolutionary programming

   (EP) A stochastic optimisation strategy originally conceived
   by Lawrence J. Fogel in 1960.

   An initially random population of individuals (trial
   solutions) is created.  Mutations are then applied to each
   individual to create new individuals.  Mutations vary in the
   severity of their effect on the behaviour of the individual.
   The new individuals are then compared in a "tournament" to
   select which should survive to form the new population.

   EP is similar to a genetic algorithm, but models only the
   behavioural linkage between parents and their offspring, rather
   than seeking to emulate specific genetic operators from nature
   such as the encoding of behaviour in a genome and
   recombination by genetic crossover.

   EP is also similar to an evolution strategy (ES) although
   the two approaches developed independently.  In EP, selection
   is by comparison with a randomly chosen set of other
   individuals whereas ES typically uses deterministic
   selection in which the worst individuals are purged from the
   population.

   (1995-02-03)