(((I'm no mathematician, but I know what the "Traveling Salesman Problem" is.
But then to see a genetic algorithm chew through the thing with sheer brute force right in front of you, man, that's freaky.)))
3D Travelling Salesman using Genetic Algorithms from Ryan Bateman on Vimeo.
Link: 3D Travelling Salesman using Genetic Algorithms on Vimeo .
The Travelling Salesman problem is stated as: "Given a number of cities and the costs of travelling from any city to any other city, what is the least-cost round-trip route that visits each city exactly once?" (((Imagine sitting down with that sucker with a number-two pencil and a piece of paper. Yeah, mathematicians used to do that! And novelists used to write on toilet paper, in prison, with a burnt matchstick.)))
I used the open source classes listed at the link below to create a Processing program that would solve the Travelling saleman problem using Genetic algorithms. Re-used paths (corresponding to Chromosomes) increase in visibility as they're re-used, fading otherwise, meaning the paths 'emerge' as certain chromosomes become more dominant.
The problem is considered 'solved' when a hundred generations have passed without a more optimal solution having been found.... (((Yeah, it's "considered" solved... but it hasn't been formally *proved* to be solved. So – do we CARE? You just pack your bag and go sell those Fuller brushes door-to-door! If you haven't lost your traveling salesman job to an e-commerce system, that is.)))
