About the book

Robot with transparent background A Field Guide to Genetic Programming (ISBN 978-1-4092-0073-4) is an introduction to genetic programming (GP). GP is a systematic, domain-independent method for getting computers to solve problems automatically starting from a high-level statement of what needs to be done. Using ideas from natural evolution, GP starts from an ooze of random computer programs, and progressively refines them through processes of mutation and sexual recombination, until solutions emerge. All this without the user having to know or specify the form or structure of solutions in advance. GP has generated a plethora of human-competitive results and applications, including novel scientific discoveries and patentable inventions.

The book is freely downloadable under a Creative Commons license as a PDF and low cost printed copies can be purchased from lulu.com. This web site will be used for information relating to the book, and other pertinent announcements. We also have a discussion group for questions and conversation related to the book.

Friday 27 March 2009

Happy Birthday Field Guide!

It is hard to believe it's already a year since the launch of the Field Guide to GP. It has been amazing to see it spread. We have had nearly 40,000 views of this web site (see data below), almost exactly 28,000 downloads of the book and we are rapidly approaching the 500 mark with paper copies. I suspect (also judging from the referring sites) that many of these "contacts" have been with people who had never heard of GP before, possibly not even of evolutionary computation. This was one of the targets we had in mind when we decided to write this book and make it freely available. Many colleagues have actually helped us in this, by recommending the book to others, by suggesting it as a textbook for university courses, by mentioning the book in their blogs, etc. We are very grateful to them and to all the visitors of this site and readers of the book.

Happy first birthday Field Guide!