Genetic algorithms: hints from biological science

C.T. Walbridge (Technology Review, vol.92, p.46-53, (1989)) discussed how ideas from evolution theory can be used to help in solving problems often addressed by the traditional symbolic methods of artificial intelligence. Choosing VLSI design as an example, he suggested that a chip chromosome would evolve just as genes evolve and the surviving organisms would mate to produce offspring having the chromosomes for the most efficient chips. These result from a combining of different parts of different chromosomes in the offspring to preserve characteristics derived from their parents. The example of a basic square root computation serves to illustrate how the ideas from evolution theory and biological science can be used in the design of globally more efficient genetic algorithms