Most Go programs appear to use a significant quantity of knowledge . It is this which we will primarily attemt to attempt to develop genetically. Most other aspects of go are somewhat beyond the scope of genetic techniques on today's hardware. This will probably remain the case for some time. A few details Within the program, the organisms are divided into a number of populations.
Programs can compete with individuals from other populations.
This has been done to provide diversity, and to avoid situations where organisms consistently beat their ancestors, but still spiral downwards in overall fitness. Organisms are rewarded in proportion to how much they win by. Losers are penalised in proportion to the size of their loss. This has been done so that even if a population of organisms is being consistently beaten, there is still a directional selection pressure acting on the population. Unfortunately this method of rewarding or organisms will produce populations who never resign games.