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Date:         Tue, 12 Jan 1993 10:55:45 -0600
From:         "CZIKO Gary A." <g-cziko@UIUC.EDU>
Subject:      Koza, Genetic Programming, & LISP

[From Gary Cziko 930112.1620 GMT]

Greg Williams (930112) says:

>Buried under two feet of white paper, rather than two feet of white H2O. Gary,
>Koza's mammoth tome didn't help this situation. Pat's first comment was,
>"Yeah, LISP -- it makes sense for this. Or assembly language (like in
>TIERRA)." Mine: "Somebody's going to make a lot of bucks off this for a long
>time." We're now thinking that some of the ideas will be helpful in writing
>our "super" NSCK (with reorganization). I recommend, especially to Martin
>Taylor and his colleagues, John R. Koza, GENETIC PROGRAMMING: ON THE
>PROGRAMMING OF COMPUTERS BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION, MIT Press, >1992.

Greg, now you know I've spent just about every "free" minute over the last
week with Koza's book.  And I am not even a computer programmer!  I never
dreamed using "natural" selection to evolve computer programs could be so
simple and understandable (even for me) and that it would so quickly result
in highly fit programs (usually within about 30 generations of a population
of 500 programs) for quite complex problems.  I just wish Koza had said
more about the weaknesses and failures of this appproach.  He makes it look
like there aren't any.  Maybe that's the case, but I wonder.

Can you say a few words about the LISP vs. assembly language (Tierra)
approach to evolving computer programs.

Also, would it be hard to simulated a problem with disturbances and see
control systems and hierarchies thereof evolve?  One could start with the
basic tracking task.

One thing that has be puzzled, however, is the "money" aspect of all this.
Koza includes lots of LISP source code in his book which make it look like
he wants others to use his techniques.  But then I see in the references
that he has patented this techniques.  What does that mean?  We can use the
code for academic purposes but not for making money?  I can understand how
software can be copyrighted, but I've never run into patents before
concerning computer programs.

Greg, can you or anybody else in CSGnet land tell me some more about LISP?
I'd love to play around with the "genetic" techniques Koza uses.  But if I
take the trouble to learn LISP, will I also be able to do with the stuff
that you, Bill, and Rick do with C and Pascal?  Are there ways of
converting LISP code to C or Pascal to make LISP programs more portable?

>(And
>also, by the way, Robert A.M. Gregson, TIMES SERIES IN PSYCHOLOGY, Erlbaum,
>1983.)

Can you tell us why you recommend this?--Gary
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