Genetic Programming II: Automatic Discovery of Reusable Programs.

Reading Genetic Programming IE Automatic Discovery ofReusable Programs (GPII) in its entirety is not a task for the weak-willed because the book without appendices is about 650 pages. An entire previous book by the same author [1] is devoted to describing Genetic Programming (GP), while this book is a sequel extolling an extension called Automatically Defined Functions (ADFs). The author, John R. Koza, argues that ADFs can be used in conjunction with GP to improve its efficacy on large problems. "An automatically defined function (ADF) is a function (i.e., subroutine, procedure, module) that is dynamically evolved during a run of genetic programming and which may be called by a calling program (e.g., a main program) that is simultaneously being evolved" (p. 1). Dr. Koza recommends adding the ADF technique to the "GP toolkit." The book presents evidence that it is possible to interpret GP with ADFs as performing either a top-down process of problem decomposition or a bottom-up process of representational change to exploit identified regularities. This is stated as Main Point 1. Main Point 2 states that ADFs work by exploiting inherent regularities, symmetries, patterns, modularities, and homogeneities within a problem, though perhaps in ways that are very different from the style of programmers. Main Points 3 to 7 are appropriately qualified statements to the effect that, with a variety of problems, ADFs pay off be-