Conclusions and the Future

Summary

This book began by posing three questions concerning the application of GE to dynamic environments.

• Is the correct infrastructure in place for GE to navigate dynamic environments? This required the investigation of the potential strengths inherent in GE and areas that require further attention for the effective application of GE to these environments

• Is GE capable of discovering new solutions when change occurs in the environment? Fundamental to the navigation of dynamic environments is that a population of solutions be capable of quickly transitioning to new areas of the solution landscape.

• Can GE maintain a diverse population of robust solutions capable of handling dynamic data? A major criticism of GA/GP approaches for dynamic environments is their tendency to converge. Maintaining diverse robust solutions is imperative for the successful application of GE to dynamic environments.

Combined with these, questions were posed relating to wider EC issues on the roles of memory and diversity in dynamic environments, along with how EC paradigms might best be tested in order to investigate these questions.