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Mapping non-conventional extensions of genetic programming

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Abstract

Conventional genetic programming research excludes memory and iteration. We have begun an extensive analysis of the space through which GP or other unconventional AI approaches search and extend it to consider explicit program stop instructions (T8), including Markov analysis and any time models (T7). We report halting probability, run time and functionality (including entropy of binary functions) of both halting and anytime programs. Irreversible Turing complete program fitness landscapes, even with halt, scale poorly however loops lock-in variation allowing more interesting functions.

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Notes

  1. In Fig. 9 we include the entropy of those T8 programs which have stopped or HALTed. This leads to higher values than we reported in Langdon (2006). In Langdon (2006, Fig. 8) we also excluded from the average programs which had stopped on all test cases.

  2. It is this increase-fall-increase in the spread of run time which gives rise to the curious non-monotonic curve in the average minimum run time seen in Fig. 11.

  3. Rather than executing the same instructions at different times.

  4. The relationship is slightly non-linear. Due to returning the same value with different inputs, the entropy of random 8-bit functions is about 7.17, rather than 8. Therefore long random programs with high entropy implement functions of slightly less entropy than their total or PC entropy.

    Fig. 20
    figure 20

    Variation of some common functions implemented by T7 with program length. As Fig. 19 except we include only programs which are not suspected of looping indefinitely on any test case

    Fig. 21
    figure 21

    Comparison of the entropy of functions implemented by midsize T7 programs with total entropy

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We would like to thank Dagstuhl Seminar 06061.

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Correspondence to William B. Langdon.

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Langdon, W.B., Poli, R. Mapping non-conventional extensions of genetic programming. Nat Comput 7, 21–43 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11047-007-9044-x

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