Three Fundamentals of the Biological Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

Evolutionary computing began by lifting ideas frombiological evolutionary theory into computer science,and continues to look toward new biological researchfindings for inspiration. However, an over enthusiastic'biology envy' can only be to the detriment of bothdisciplines by masking the broader potential fortwo-way intellectual traffic of shared insights andanalogising from one another. Three fundamentalfeatures of biological evolution illustrate thepotential range of intellectual flow between the twocommunities: particulate genes carry some subtleconsequences for biological evolution that have not yettranslated mainstream EC; the adaptive properties ofthe genetic code illustrate how both communities cancontribute to a common understanding of appropriateevolutionary abstractions; finally, EC exploration ofrepresentational language seems pre-adapted to helpbiologists understand why life evolved a dichotomy ofgenotype and phenotype.