Evolution, entropy, and parallel computation

Abstract

The relationship between evolution and entropy is described for a model of self-reproducing parallel computation. As was recently shown by Thearling and Ray (1994), the performance of some types of parallel computation can be increased though a process analogous to evolution by natural selection. The work discussed in this paper explores the process by which evolution manipulates the entropy of instruction sequences in a population of parallel programs in an effort to discover more efficient uses of parallelism.<>