Preface

Genetic Algorithms in Elixir — by Sean Moriarity (4 / 101)

👈 Acknowledgments | TOC | Who This Book Is For 👉

Genetic algorithms are a powerful and often overlooked tool for solving difficult problems. Some of the most beautiful solutions to practical problems are inspired by or modeled after solutions found in mother nature. Genetic algorithms are no exception. Inspired by the original optimization algorithm — evolution — genetic algorithms can be used to solve a variety of problems in a variety of fields. As you’ll see in this book, genetic algorithms have applications in finance, logistics, artificial intelligence, and more.

Unfortunately, despite being one of the first “artificial intelligence” algorithms, there’s a surprising lack of resources available for programmers to explore the ins and outs of using evolution to solve problems. Even still, there are no books designed specifically with Elixir programmers in mind.

My goal in writing this book is to introduce Elixir programmers to a field of programming they might have never been exposed to or were too intimidated to try. Technology evolves rapidly, and programmers need to constantly seek out and learn about new fields and new technologies. While Elixir may not be the ideal language for solving computationally expensive problems, a programmer shouldn’t be forced to learn a new language just to learn about genetic algorithms.