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Genetic algorithms are strange, almost creepy, but also remarkably cool. This, for instance, is a remarkably cool project by Roger Alsing which seeks to evolve an approximation of the original Mona Lisa using just 50 semi-transparent polygons.
Essentially, to use a genetic algorithm, you only need know what you're looking for in a solution to a problem - not how to solve it. The software does the rest.Genetic algorithms work using a set of parameters to control their output. By running the algorithm with a population of sets of these parameters and selecting those sets that give outputs that a re closest to the desired output, a "natural selection" routine breeds the next generation of parameter sets (adding slight mutations as it goes) and the genetic algorithm runs again. Eventually, a stable design emerges.
I can't help but notice that creationists are very quiet about genetic algorithms. Is there an "elephant in the room" here, I wonder?
