Genetics and Connectionism

[Clay Bridges]

While I may be a bit wet behind the ears, I feel obliged to say
something about the recent spate of enthusiasm about combining some
sort of genetic evolution with connectionist networks. I am making the
assumption that genetic evolution implies some variation on genetic
algorithms. I'll admit that combining these two naturally inspired
paradigms appeals to one's intuition in a powerful way (It certainly
appeals to mine), but I believe that we should be wary.

As far as I know, connectionist networks are still not very well
understood, at least with respect to recurrent, asynchronous, or
modular networks. Genetic algorithms (GAs) are even less well
understood than connectionism, in general. Thus, in combining these
two fields, we create the _potential_ for a subfield with little or no
guiding theory, and thus one where specious projects abound, successes
go unexplained, and research efforts go wasted.

This is not to say that I don't think that the combination should be
explored. I harbor some nascent plans to do so myself. What I am
saying is that we shouldn't expect magic when we combine connectionism
and GAs. We should explore the combination tentatively, with an eye
toward having explanations (i.e. theory) for simple things before we
attempt more complex ones. 

Clay Bridges
clay at cs.cmu.edu