The Simple Genetic Algorithm: Foundations and Theory (Complex Adaptive Systems)

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 220 pages
• Published by: The MIT Press August 27, 1999
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 026222058X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0262220583
• Book Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 1.6 pounds

Product Review
It might be simple, but it's not easy. Computer scientist Michael D. Vose takes a rigorous look at The Simple Genetic Algorithm and shows the state of our knowledge in a book appropriate for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals.

Vose has decided to approach his subject as a mathematical object, keeping his discussion to a minimum and relying on mathematical demonstrations of what has been proven about this powerful genetic search. This approach maximizes the book's utility for its scope of readers; since each chapter builds on the material before, it makes a good teaching tool, but it is still a useful reference as the indexing helps the professional find proofs quickly.

Covering the basics of random heuristic searching and the nature of the algorithm, the book moves on to computing, transient and asymptotic behavior, models, and schemata. Cutting all of the material down to the basic provable theorems is not, as Vose admits, without problems: any speculation beyond these stripped-down proofs is left to the imaginative reader. But the intrepid explorer couldn't ask for firmer ground from which to launch flights of discovery, and genetic computation currently offers the widest frontiers. --Rob Lightner

Product Review


"This book should be required reading for anyone working in the theory of genetic algorithms and evolutionary computation."
—Alden Wright, Professor of Computer Science, University of Montana, Missoula

Reader Reviews
the word simple in the title can be misleading. it is not meant to give the impression that the material in the book is simple, but to say that the topic covered is reduced to the simpliest of genetic algorithm theory, and then, you are brutally raked over burning coals by it. the introduction given by the author could be mistaken as elitest, totalitarial propaganda for the next mathematical reich: condeming the application and biological euphamism that has been used to explain genetic algorithms while carrying the flag of pure mathematical abstraction. basically, all math and no play makes jack a dull boy, at least to those who wanted a simple introduction. i found the math sometimes unnecessarily complex at times, with notation being abused (ironically, the author in the introduction condems those that do this, too), and the level of rigor being uneven. all of this makes it sometimes difficult to follow. but, there are some sections that where there is no better explanation in any book but the detailed, well thought out, straight forward presentation here (look at the coverage of walsh and the complex examples sections). for anybody who uses ga's daily, this is an essential read for a truly deep understanding. the two friends that i have loaned this book to, returned it in under a month scared away by the mathematics, prima facie; it really isn't that bad and the understanding you get from this book is unparalled by any other dna-glossy-picture, darwinian-explanation filled excuse for a book.