Epigenetic opportunities for evolutionary computation

Abstract

Evolutionary computation is a group of biologically inspired algorithms used to solve complex optimization problems. It can be split into evolutionary algorithms, which take inspiration from genetic inheritance, and swarm intelligence algorithms, that take inspiration from cultural inheritance. However, much of the modern evolutionary literature remains relatively unexplored. To understand which evolutionary mechanisms have been considered, and which have been overlooked, this paper breaks down successful bioinspired algorithms under a contemporary biological framework based on the extended evolutionary synthesis, an extension of the classical, genetics focused, modern synthesis. Although the idea of the extended evolutionary synthesis has not been fully accepted in evolutionary theory, it presents many interesting concepts that could provide benefits to evolutionary computation. The analysis shows that Darwinism and the modern synthesis have been incorporated into evolutionary computation but the extended evolutionary synthesis has been broadly ignored beyond: cultural inheritance, incorporated in the sub-set of swarm intelligence algorithms, evolvability, through covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES), and multilevel selection, through multilevel selection genetic algorithm (MLSGA). The framework shows a gap in epigenetic inheritance for evolutionary computation, despite being a key building block in modern interpretations of evolution. This leaves a diverse range of biologically inspired mechanisms as low hanging fruit that should be explored further within evolutionary computation and illustrates the potential of epigenetic based approaches through the recent benchmarks in the literature.