Evolutionary search: gradients and information.
To better understand evolution one might view evolution as a search algorithm proceeding through a search space. The search method implemented by reproduction with mutation and selection of the fit does not perform efficiently on many search spaces. Characteristics of the search space are critically important to the effectiveness of the search algorithm. The "gradients" of and the "information" in a search space are used in this paper to study performance of "evolutionary" search algorithms.
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D008433:Mathematics; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation; D012641:Selection, Genetic