genetic programming

A type of programming that imitates genetic algorithms, which uses mutation and replication to produce algorithms that represent the "survival of the fittest." While genetic algorithms yield numbers, genetic programs yield ever-improving computer programs. Written in languages such as LISP and Scheme, genetic programming requires the determination of a fitness function, which is a desired output (result). The degree of error in the fitness function determines the quality of the program. For more information, visit www.geneticprogramming.com.

---

(programming)

genetic programming - (GP) A programming technique which extends the genetic algorithm to the domain of whole computer programs. In GP, populations of programs are genetically bred to solve problems. Genetic programming can solve problems of system identification, classification, control, robotics, optimisation, game playing, and pattern recognition. Starting with a primordial ooze of hundreds or thousands of randomly created programs composed of functions and terminals appropriate to the problem, the population is progressively evolved over a series of generations by applying the operations of Darwinian fitness proportionate reproduction and crossover (sexual recombination).