EC Theory: A Unified Viewpoint

In this paper we show how recent theoretical developments have led to a more unified framework for understanding different branches of Evolutionary Computation (EC), as well as distinct theoretical formulations, such as the Schema theorem and the Vose model. In particular, we show how transformations of the configuration space of the model — such as coarse-grainings/projections, embeddings and coordinate transformations — link these different, disparate elements and alter the standard taxonomic classification of EC and different EC theories. As an illustration we emphasize one particular coordinate transformation between the standard string basis and the “Building Block” basis.