EC Theory -- ``In Theory'': Towards a Unification of
Evolutionary Computation Theory
Frontiers of Evolutionary Computation, 11, chapter 7, Kluwer, Boston, MA, USA, (2004)Abstract
We present a personal overview of EC theory. In
particular, we try to show that recent theoretical
developments have pointed the way to a grand
unification of different branches of EC, such as
Genetic Algorithms and Genetic Programming, and also
different theoretical models, such as the Vose model
and Holland's Schema theorem. We give a broad outline
of this unification program showing how the different
elements above are related to each other via changes of
representation on the space of EC models. Based on our
work we pose a series of challenges which if met, we
believe, will lead to a much deeper understanding of EC
and the various types of evolutionary algorithm.