Re: Typical Genetic Algorithm Example

sotnet wrote:

Now that you explained, that in case of a bad mutation the offspring
will be thrown away, it does not make any difference!
(I just opposed to claim that mutation in Gray code would results in
small change)

The important point to consider here is that small differences in genotype can result in quite significant differences in phenotype. When people are talking about mutations making small changes, they tend to mean small changes in the genotype, not necessarily small ones in the phenotype. Real biological evolution is so complicated that the distinction tends to be reduced (but not nonexistent); but in artificial examples, the difference tends to be far more pronounced. After all, if you have only a handful of bits of the genotype to mutate, then mutating any given one is likely to result in a very different result in the phenotype (the integral value that bit representation translates to).

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