Building block superiority, multimodality and synchronization problems

The working of a genetic algorithm is usually explained by the search for superior building blocks. Building blocks with above average fitness are combined to construct higher order building blocks. This paper shows that this mechanism is not sufficient to solve problems where multimodality is ubiquitous. For this class of problems niching becomes a necessity. The paper analyzes the Ising model as an archetypal problem where multimodality is ubiquitous and niching is essential. The analysis introduces an important difference between searching for superior building blocks and searching for non-inferior building blocks.

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