“That which has happened before is less likely to happen again” (a reference to an old Overcoming Bias post I can’t locate).
Good point. In fact, that is the type of environment which is required for the No Free Lunch theorems mentioned in the post to even be relevant. A typical interpretation in the evolutionary computing field would be that it’s the type of environment where an anti-GA (a genetic algorithm which selects individuals with worse fitness) does better than a GA. There are good reasons to say that such environments can’t occur for important classes of problems typically tackled by EC. In the context of this post, I wonder whether such an environment is even physically realisable.
(I think a lot of people misinterpret NFL theorems.)
Good point. In fact, that is the type of environment which is required for the No Free Lunch theorems mentioned in the post to even be relevant. A typical interpretation in the evolutionary computing field would be that it’s the type of environment where an anti-GA (a genetic algorithm which selects individuals with worse fitness) does better than a GA. There are good reasons to say that such environments can’t occur for important classes of problems typically tackled by EC. In the context of this post, I wonder whether such an environment is even physically realisable.
(I think a lot of people misinterpret NFL theorems.)