Evolution & Adaptation
Search, selection, and learning
Evolution is a search algorithm running on every living thing, and over the last seventy years it has been copied into machines. This section covers both the biological original and its artificial descendants. Both matter now: adaptation is what life does under pressure, and machine learning has become one of the fastest instruments available for finding materials, mapping forests, and steering grids.
9 ways in
Artificial Neural Networks
Layered computational structures that learn by adjusting connection strengths against examples.
Open →Evolutionary Computation
Problem solving by generating populations of candidate solutions and selecting the best across generations.
Open →Genetic Algorithms and Programming
Search methods that encode solutions as strings or programs and improve them through mutation, crossover, and selection.
Open →Artificial Life
The study of life-like processes through synthesis, in software, hardware, or chemistry.
Open →Machine Learning
Systems that improve their performance on a task by extracting patterns from data rather than following fixed instructions.
Open →Evo-Devo
The study of how changes in development produce evolutionary change in form.
Open →Artificial Intelligence
The engineering of systems that perform tasks normally requiring human judgement, perception, or reasoning.
Open →Evolutionary Robotics
The automatic design of robot bodies and controllers through simulated evolution and selection.
Open →Evolvability
The capacity of a system to generate useful variation and therefore to adapt.
Open →