This is brilliantly cool, and utterly hypnotic. I still always wonder about implementations of genetic algorithms, though. In real life, from which inspiration has been taken, the phenotype is often radically affected by small changes in the genotype. In computer implementation of the concept this is rarely the case. The computer versions are small, clean, spare, and nowhere near as messy as the real life version.<p>I wonder if the messiness actually matters. I wonder if "optimization by genetic algorithm" would be significantly improved by using a more faithful algorithm.<p>========<p>Anyway, here's a previous discussion of this particular toy:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5942757" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5942757</a> (169 comments)<p>Other submissions:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10596079" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10596079</a><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10134390" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10134390</a><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5952145" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5952145</a><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2226137" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2226137</a><p>Also, genetic development of walkers:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8911719" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8911719</a> (74 comments)
This is a very beautiful illustration of a woefully outdated algorithm. Its proportional selection operator was superseded in 1994 (at the latest) when Bäck published his comparison of selection operators. Its approach to crossover looks like an ad-hoc extension of binary crossover, which Deb improved on in the same year. It's using uniform mutation, although better options have been demonstrated by Evolution Strategies since the '70s, if not earlier.<p>But it's really fun to watch. I'll give it that.
Here's my version from a decade ago:<p><a href="http://peteshadbolt.co.uk/ga/" rel="nofollow">http://peteshadbolt.co.uk/ga/</a><p>It's so old that it's written in Flash! One of these days I will port it to canvas, I swear...
It's a little dead, but there's a few more similar natural selection simulators over at <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NSIP/top/?sort=top&t=all" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/NSIP/top/?sort=top&t=all</a>
It would be cool if someone added a car designer to this. I wonder if I could design a car based on intuition that would perform better than the algo could generate.
Would be cool to display the current world seed somewhere if it isn't explicitly entered.<p>I was going to paste an example track I came across that seemed literally impossible to conquer within the constraints of the mutations, but I can't grab the seed.<p>In any event, would love more depth to the mutations. Longer/taller cars, etc. Maybe even other things like randomly firing after burners, wings to let it glide, etc.<p>Nice work!
I keep looking for the version of this simulator where <i>you</i> get to draw your own car, and then you run it and see how well it handles the terrain. played with it many years ago, never found it again. maybe someone here can help?