Human-based evolutionary computation: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:36, 21 October 2006

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| bgcolor=cornsilk | Human-based selection dtrategy

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| bgcolor=cornsilk | Human-based [[evolution strategy]]

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| bgcolor=cornsilk | [[Human-based genetic algorithm]]

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===Human-based evolution strategy===

In this context and maybe generally, the Wikipedia software is the best illustration of a working human-based evolution strategy. TheTraditional [[evolution strategy]] has three operators: initialization, operatormutation, hereand selection. In Wikipedia case, the initialization operator is a page creation., Thethe mutation operator is an incremental page edit. The selection operator is less salient. It is provided by the revision history and the ability to select among all previous revisions via revert operation. If the page is vandalised and no longer a good fit to its title, a reader can easily go to the revision history and select one of the previos revisions that fits best (hopefully, the previous one). This selection feature is crucial to the success of the Wikipedia.

An interesting fact is that the original wiki software was created in 1995, but it took at least another six years for large wiki-based collaborative projects to appear. Why did it take so long? One explanation is that the original wiki software was lacking selection operation and hence it couldn't effectively support content evolution. The addition of revision history and rise of large wiki-supported communities coincide in time. From evolutionary computation point of view this is not surprising: without selection operation the content would undergo an aimless [[genetic drift]] and would unlikely to be useful to anyone. That is what many people expect from Wikipedia at the very beginning. However, with selection operation, utility of the content have a tendency to improve over time as beneficial changes accumulate. This is what actually happens on a large scale in Wikipedia.