Atlas record: https://www.aitimeline.dev/en/events/evt-0127/
Research · 1975
Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems
Holland described a search in which a population of solutions crosses over, mutates and is selected by fitness.
Why it matters
Optimisation gained a method that needs neither a derivative nor a model of the problem, only a way to score a result.
The book introduces schemata and the schema theorem: selection grows the share of short successful fragments of a solution exponentially. Unlike gradient methods it needs no differentiability, so it works on discrete and discontinuous problems. Evolutionary strategies and neuroevolution later grew from this line.
Event record
- Event date
- 1975
- Timeline date
- Event date
- Verification
- Sources gathered automatically · September 17, 2026
- Lines
- ID
- evt-0127
Year of the University of Michigan Press edition.
Related events
Earlier
- Related A machine that mutates its own program 1958links to this record
Holland in 1975 described a search in which a population of solutions crosses over and mutates; Friedberg in 1958 mutates the instructions of one program. Friedberg's paper does not mention Holland, and whether Holland cites Friedberg was not checked.
- Related The Metropolis method 1953
Both methods search by random trial instead of exhaustive enumeration.
Later